Issue 18

THE AMHERST

THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF AMHERST COLLEGE SINCE 1868

STUDENT VOLUME CXLIV, ISSUE 18 l WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2015

Men’s Hockey to Host NESCAC Championships See Sports Page 9

AMHERSTSTUDENT.AMHERST.EDU

College’s Political Union Hosts Kirk Bloodsworth Ryan Cenek ’18 Assistant News Editor

Olivia Tarantino ‘15 Photography Editor

Members of the Green Amherst Project said they will cooperate with the board to devise strategies to improve environmental sustainability on campus. However, they still believe that responsible investment is divestment.

The photo was taken at the Green Amherst Project meeting on Tuesday, March 3.

Trustees Say No To Divestment

Elaine Jeon ’17 Managing News Editor

The board of trustees announced its unanimous approval of a statement on sustainability and investment policy Tuesday, Feb. 24. The statement formally acknowledged the dangers of climate change and proposed a responsible stewardship of resources to make environmental sustainability a focal point of the college’s operations and investment decisions. Furthermore, the statement said that the board intends to work on achieving a carbon-neutral footprint and energy conservation efforts. However, the board emphasized that it did not endorse divestment from the coal industry.

The statement further elaborated on the board of trustees’ stance to not divest. The board said

that it believes in a strategy based on analysis and engagement with the investment managers. “It is also a more effective way, over time, to assert those values...than systematically excluding individual companies, sectors, or industries would be — ­ in other words, divestment,” the statement said.

The board said in its announcement that it would collaborate with the new Office of Environmental Sustainability and the Investment Office to find ways for the college’s endowment to reflect the environmental values of the college.

Director of Sustainability Laura Draucker said that the board’s approval of the sustainability and investment policy is an important step towards turning Amherst College into a sustainability leader.

“We have made great progress over the years

with sustainability initiatives, such as energy efficiency improvements, co-generation of heat and electricity, local food through Book and Plow and the establishment of the Office of Environmental Sustainability last fall,” Draucker said. “The approval of this policy strongly supports further enhancement and expansion of these programs.”

In order to address all the points outlined in the board’s statement, Draucker said the Office of Environmental Sustainability will focus on “developing a strategy to achieve a carbon-neutral footprint, exploring alternative forms of energy, creating a revolving fund to support clean energy projects and working to integrate sustainability

Continued on Page 3

Kirk Bloodsworth, the first American on death row to be exonerated by DNA evidence, spoke about his experience in the Red Room in Converse Hall on Wednesday, Feb. 25. The event was organized by the Amherst College Political Union.

Bloodsworth described how he was convicted of the rape and murder of 9-year-old Dawn Hamilton in 1985 in Maryland and was sentenced to death. Despite questionable circumstantial evidence, a strong alibi and the youth and unreliability of the eyewitnesses, Bloodworth was found guilty after a trial that lasted just two weeks, which he attributes to incompetent legal representation and recklessness on the part of the police.

“You can’t help but to feel isolated by the experience,” Bloodsworth said in an interview.

“Wrongful convictions are one of our greatest social injustices of our time. But [giving] up for me was never an option.”

Bloodsworth described how he asked his lawyers to use DNA evidence, a new technology at the time, to demonstrate his innocence, leading to his exoneration in 1993. The real murderer, Kimberly Shay Ruffner, who coincidentally had served time in the same prison as Bloodsworth for unrelated crimes, was convicted in 2004.

Since his exoneration, Bloodsworth has become an activist fighting for justice system reform and the abolition of the death penalty.

“When I got out, I knew this could happen to anyone,” Bloodworth said. “That’s what led me to the decision to speak out and promote reform.”

Bloodsworth’s advocacy contributed to Maryland’s 2013 repeal of capital punishment.

He endorsed life imprisonment as an alternative sentence for severe crimes. In addition to the elimination of the death penalty, Bloodsworth called for reform measures, such as taping police interrogators, alternative police lineup methods that were less likely to result in false identifications

Continued on Page 3

Mental Health and Wellness Focus Group Results Released Sophie Chung ’17

Managing News Editor The Mental Health and Wellness Committee recently released the results from the series of student life mental health focus groups from fall 2014. The results show that many students share similar experiences regarding issues of loneliness, belonging and social connection on campus.

The Mental Health and Wellness Committee conducted a series of eight focus groups over the past semester with six to 15 students in each group to identify the main areas of concern for students’ mental health. These groups were implemented in response to the high level of loneliness which Amherst College students reported on the National College Health Assessment, conducted in March 2014. In the survey, three out of four Amherst students expressed feeling lonely some time within the last year, a statistic that is 20 percent higher than the national average for college students.

“The purpose of the focus groups was to gather more information on student experiences and to solicit ideas to address loneliness and improve social connection on campus,” said Amherst mental health educator Jessica Gifford.

Gifford said she believed that even the act of holding conversations about experiences of social connection among students would be beneficial.

Results from these facilitated group discussions highlighted particular areas of concern. According to the focus group’s report, “students felt the social options were limited, and there weren’t many opportunities to meet people and socialize outside of parties.” Many students also pointed to the lack of physical spaces on campus conducive to social mingling.

Additionally, the report said that many students saw the communities within the smaller groups of athletic teams, clubs and identity groups as coming with the cost of being exclusive and rigid.

However, the issue that was brought up

most frequently by students was the fear of being vulnerable. The report said that many students described Amherst “as a culture that expects smartness, achievement, success and invulnerability from its students” and as a result, “students reported feeling that they couldn’t share vulnerability with others, and therefore dealt with problems alone.”

“I think the [theme of] ‘success vs. vulnerability’ is the most impactful, along with the idea of conceptualizing success as incorporating vulnerability, rather than the two being mutually exclusive,” Gifford said.

After identifying many of the overarching issues that many students agreed upon, groups also worked to identify what currently helps to make connections on campus.

The report said that many students did point to several programs that were effective in creating a structure for interactions across social groups, such as Pindar Field dinners, AC After Dark, CEOT trips and orientation. Other students identified feeling more connected

when contributing in a role such as being a Residence Counselor , Student Health Educator or a Peer Advocate.

In response to these results, the Mental Health and Wellness Committee proposed possible future plans to address many of the social connection issues that contribute to widespread loneliness on campus. All future plans were suggestions made by the students during the focus group dicussions.

Students in the focus groups suggested adding follow-up meetings to the Pindar dinners, CEOT trips and orientation, as well as mentoring programs to facilitate student adjustment to college life and make social connections. More suggestions called for promoting meaningful involvement in an incorporated community service component through Residential Life or first-year seminars.

Many students in the focus groups said that popular conceptions of what an Amherst

Continued on Page 3

3

News

Katharine Rudzitis Feb. 23, 2015-March 2, 2015

>>Feb. 23, 2015 10:20 a.m., Amherst College Police A student reported receiving a call from an individual who claimed to be from the IRS demanding back taxes of $952. The student did not make the transaction. >>Feb. 24, 2015 12:22 p.m., Mayo-Smith House A student reported receiving a call from an individual who claimed to be from the IRS demanding payment for back taxes. The student did not make any transaction.

12:53 p.m., Amherst College Police A student reported receiving a call from an individual who claimed to be from the IRS demanding payment for back taxes. The student did not make any transaction.

7:50 p.m., Crossett Dormitory A student reported a physical altercation involving another student that occurred a few days earlier. The matter is under investigation and the Student Affairs office was notified.

beer pong table, beer and hard alcohol present. The alcohol was confiscated as the residents were not of age, and they resided in a first year residence hall. The matter was referred to Student Affairs. >>Feb. 28, 2015 12:39 a.m., Hitchcock House Officers responded to a complaint of a loud party in the common room and advised the student who registered it.

11:01 a.m., Off Campus Locations A student reported being involved in a motor vehicle accident with a college-owned van. A report was taken. >>Mar. 1, 2015 12:16 a.m., Morris Pratt Dormitory Officers responded to a complaint of loud music in the fourth-floor common room. A group of students was advised to shut the music off.

1:31 a.m., Pond Dormitory A visitor reported the theft of a coat from a second-floor suite.

>>Feb. 25, 2015 2:25 a.m., Tyler House While assisting an intoxicated student, an officer discovered marijuana in the student’s room. It was confiscated and the matter was referred to Student Affairs.

2:26 a.m., Tyler House While assisting an intoxicated student, an officer discovered alcohol in the student’s room. It was confiscated as the student was underage. The matter was referred to Student Affairs. >>Feb. 26, 2015 9:35 a.m., Fayerweather Lot Rd. An officer investigated a motor vehicle accident. >>Feb. 27, 2015 12:16 a.m., Valentine Dining Hall An officer encountered several students in the act of relocating an ice sculpture from the south side of Valentine Hall. It was returned.

2:24 p.m., Converse Hall An officer investigated a package an employee thought was suspicious. It was found to be an acceptable delivery.

2:02 a.m., Valentine Dining Hall Officers discovered forcible entry into Valentine Hall via the gate near the checkers station. Matter is under investigation.

10:50 a.m., Tyler House A smashed window was reported in an electronic access door at Tyler. Facilities was notified. The responsible person is unknown.

10:01 p.m., Valentine Dining Hall An employee reported the theft of several personal items from a locker room.

The items were found in another location where they had been moved for safekeeping.

Katharine Rudzitis ‘15 is writing an original novella for her honors thesis in the English department. Her adviser is Writer-In-Residence and chair of the Creative Writing Center Daniel Hall. Rudzitis is graduating with a triple major in English, math and classics.

Q: What is your thesis about?

A: My thesis is creative writing in the English department about the myths that I’ve always liked growing up. I originally wanted to take the myths and have different short stories, so I would do Pandora, but set in a modern, New York place or Prometheus or something like that. But it came together, and we’re officially calling it a novella, according to my advisor.

It traces a mortal character and a bunch of different gods as they go through all kinds of adventures. It will be 106 pages, but it will be cut down to about 75 pages.

Q: What made you decide to choose mythology as a thesis topic?

A: Growing up I loved hearing about the Greek myths. I’ve done classics courses since sixth grade and on, so I got to read a lot of these myths in Greek and Latin, which they were written in, and that was pretty exciting.

I decided to do it as a thesis because I wanted to do some kind of capstone project senior year. For the English department, your capstone project is usually your 400-level seminar, but I took that as a junior and I wanted to do something senior year to have something to show for what I’ve done here, and I thought it would be really fun to write something and make it my own. I’d done a fiction writing course before where we did a couple of short stories each, but I wanted to see what would happen if I [worked for] a longer time frame.

Q: How common is it for English majors to do original fiction as their capstone project?

A: From what I’ve heard, it’s about 50/50 split between the critical and creative projects [this year]. It hasn’t usually been like that, but in the past couple of years, there have been a lot of people interested in doing creative projects.

Q: Who are your literary inspirations?

A: Douglas Adams, Neil Gaiman and Lev Grossman. They also are probably the biggest influences on this particular writing project that I’ve been doing.

10:41 p.m., Moore Dormitory An officer investigated vandalism at the building. Someone smashed a stairway window, damaged a bulletin board and a carbon monoxide detector.

11:41 p.m., Charles Pratt Dormitory While responding to a first-floor room for a noise complaint, officers discovered an

Department of English

Q: Have there been any back-and-forth conversations with your classics professors about the project?

A: They have all thought it was a fascinating topic because these are the fields that they teach in. One of my classics professors, Craig Russell, has encouraged me throughout the process — he said he might read couple parts of it, which is exciting. I think they’re really excited that someone is taking these ancient stories and putting them into a modern setting.

2:25 p.m., Observatory An officer investigated an intrusion alarm and found it was accidentally activated by a facilities worker.

10:46 p.m., Mayo-Smith House An officer investigated a smoke detector sounding on the first floor and found that smoke from the fireplace activated it. It was reset.

Thoughts on Theses

>Mar. 2, 2015 1:04 a.m., O’Connell Lot An officer checked on a report of a door open on a car and found the seatbelt obstructing it.

Illustrations by Luke Haggerty ’18

Q: Can you describe your writing process?

A: Junior year was tough. I was taking my classics seminars, I was taking the last core math classes — it was a rough year, and I wanted to have a little more fun and time to myself to do those things that you only get to do as a senior in college. So I wanted to do all my writing in the fall semester, [and] all the editing and revision in the spring semester. I also had math comps in January,

so I knew I couldn’t do a lot of writing over interterm, since I’d be studying for that. So I decided to do my writing in the fall, and that meant for the most part turning in a story almost every week. That was a terrifying thought at first because all you know is, I’m gonna turn in a hundred pages in April.

That’s an intimidating thought — how are you supposed to get going with that? So I had a convenient one-hour gap between my 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. classes, and I decided I would write for an hour every day. Didn’t have a length requirement that I set for myself, didn’t have to be good or bad, I just had to do it for an hour every day. And that worked really well. It was hard at first just because I had never done that much writing on such a regular schedule but by the end of the semester I was really enjoying it, and it was nice to stop doing my classwork and switch over to actually writing something that I cared about. So I stuck with that, I got all my stories written in the fall, and now I’m revising and editing.

Q: Was it ever a challenge to give all these mythological creatures a voice and a space that rang true?

A: That was really tough. If you read the Iliad or the Odyssey, you’ll see descriptions like Hera, of the white arms, or Zeus, of the thunderbolts. They have these repeated setphrases, but every god has one particular attribute that comes up again and again, and if you’re trying to write a story about someone as a character then you can’t always refer to them — Hera can’t always “have white arms” every time you bring her up. So I had to do a lot of thinking about how to present these people. One of the things that helped me was the Lane Fellowship, which is through the archives and special collections in Frost Library. They give you funds and direction and help you do independent research, so I’ve been using that to look at artwork that depicts some of these myths and that’s helped me better characterize my people.

Q: What kind of advice would you give to future thesis writers, particularly in the English department?

A: Be mindful of the other obligations you have senior year. So, for me, I had math comps after interterm. That took a lot of studying. I knew that would take a lot of studying, so I knew I had to fit my thesis writing around that to make sure I could pass one of my other majors, which is pretty important. So, make sure you know your schedule so you can plan out the best way to get your work done and think of how you get your work done.

For me, it was an hour a day ... I made that commitment to work a little bit every day. I know some people that need specific deadlines with 10 pages due at a certain time, so if you need that kind of pressure then you need an advisor who’s willing to give you those deadlines. Knowing the other work that you have to get done and figuring out the best way to plan it out. If you don’t do that, then it might stop being a fun process.

— Nolan Lindquist ’18

The Amherst Student • March 4, 2015

Mental Health Continued from Page 1 student should be made it difficult to admit vulnerability. The Mental Health and Wellness Committee said, “It will be important to share the concerns surfaced by the focus groups with key offices, such as Admissions, Public Affairs and the orientation committee, to strategize how to feature success and accomplishments in a way that does not erode students’ sense of self.”

“I think that belonging and social connection are central to students’ well-being. How can we shift the social norm toward inclusion and connection without adding high social expectations to the burden of what students are expected to achieve?” Gifford said.

More detailed information and future plans from the focus group results will be presented to the entire campus community and discussed at an open meeting on Wednesday, March 25 at 6 p.m. in the Cole Assembly Room.

News

3

Red Pines Stands Hit by Blight Eli Mansbach ’18 Staff Writer

Chief of Campus Operations Jim Brassord announced in a campus-wide email Feb. 19 that the college will be taking down the red pine stands located in the Amherst Sanctuary behind the tennis courts. The trees were planted as fastgrowing replacements following a hurricane that devastated tree stands across campus in 1938. According to Brassord, the trees now face two problems.

“One is that [the red pines] are now beyond their normal life expectancy, so you would expect a natural die-off because of the age of the trees,” Brassord said, “But [the second] is that they are incredibly stressed right now by a blight … and a fungus.”

The blight, Matsococcusreinosae, and the fungus, also known as Fomes root rot, have

attacked many of the red pines in the sanctuary, which puts the branches and trunks of the trees at risk of falling down. Brassord said that there have not been any injuries so far because the grounds crew have been taking down at-risk trees, but, “over the past year, the poor condition of the trees has accelerated so quickly that now we are in a position where we have to take them all down.”

In his email, Brassord said that the first phase of the red pine removal will start this month and will continue over the next two years until the 35 to 40 acres of red pine stands in the sanctuary have been taken down. He added that treatment of the pines was not a feasible option, and the college is taking down the pines at the suggestion of foresters and conservation experts who were brought in to evaluate the red pines.

Despite the wide-scale removal of the pines, Brassord said that the process will cost only a

few thousand dollars for the college.

“The cost is fairly minimal ... because what we are [doing] is engaging a local forestry company that will take down the trees using industrial equipment, but of the few trees that have any timber value within the stand, they are going to use those [trees] and take those … which will offset the cost,” Brassord said.

The red pines will be replaced by a mix of deciduous and coniferous trees, an effort to make the sanctuary more reflective of a natural forest, according to Brassord. This project of clearing the trees will leave the area looking barren for a few years. However, he also said that the college is working with the biology and environmental studies faculty, in addition to the Office of Environmental Sustainability, to make the new stands “positive for the campus” by creating carbon sinks where the red pines stands will be taken down.

Board of Trustees Says No to Divestment Continued from Page 1

into the educational and community life at Amherst College.”

Furthermore, the Office of Environmental Sustainability recently created a Climate Action Plan task force, which consists of students, faculty and staff. The task force will work towards developing a carbon-neutral strategy as a response to the board’s recent announcement.

In response to the board of trustees’ decision, Green Amherst Project members have been discussing the group’s future initiatives. While they said they have no definite plans yet, the members have come up with three possible courses of actions thus far. The first option is to escalate the group’s current divestment campaign.

“If we want the board to divest, we need to give them a reason to do so,” Green Amherst Project member Brian Beaty ‘17 said. “This may involve more direct actions on campus such as protests and sit-ins. Another option we have is to create what’s called an escrow fund, which essentially allows alumni to withhold their donations until Amherst divests.”

Beaty said that another option is to stop pushing for divestment and cooperate with the board of trustees and its requests. However, the Green Amherst Project’s statement that was released on Feb. 24 said that while the group looks “forward to working with the board to achieve our shared goal of responsible investment of our endowment,” it claims that in the end, responsible investment is divestment. Then, the last option is for Green Amherst Project to push for both divestment and on-campus sustainability. While the group’s members are divided on the ultimate course of action, Beaty said they see this as the most ideal course of action as the group will continue pushing for divestment, but still work

with the board.

In the statement on Feb. 28, the board of trustees said that the original issue of divestment was raised with respect to direct investment of the endowment in the coal industry. The statement clarified that “at the time [of the issue of divestment first being raised at Amherst], Amherst had no direct investment in coal, and Amherst still has no direct investment in coal.”

The board’s position is to push for sustainability in the college’s community and investment process, but not by withdrawing investments from coal industries.

Nonetheless, the Green Amherst Project members said that the board of trustees directly manages only a small portion of the college’s $2.15 billion endowment, and the rest is controlled by external investment managers.

“The board says they have no say over where these managers choose to invest the school’s money, but we suspect that they could if they tried. Our next best step for divestment may be to contact these managers ourselves,” Beaty said.

Chief Investment Officer Mauricia Geissler said that while the college’s Office of Investment and the Investment Committee will not pursue a policy of divestment, the college will continue to address social, environmental and governance issues with investment managers, the board of trustees and the campus community. For example, the office evaluates the college’s shareholder proxies in alignment with ESG principles.

“As the board’s statement says, each of us makes trade-offs around fossil fuels every day.

It’s no different for an endowment. This will be a dynamic and ongoing process of inquiry, analysis and engagement with Amherst’s investment partners,” Geissler said.

According to 350.org’s project Fossil Free,

Photo courtesy of Lehua Matsumoto ‘18

Green Amherst Project members delivered a letter requesting divestment from fossil fuels to the board of trustees last November. which campaigns for fossil fuel divestment, 21 universities and colleges nationwide have committed to divestment from fossil fuels so far. For example, Hampshire College has been committed to fossil free investment since Dec. 2011. Other institutions that have entirely divested include Pitzer College, Stanford University and University of Dayton.

The day after Amherst’s board of trustees announced that it will not divest, 233 faculty and staff members at Williams delivered a letter to the college’s president Adam Falk and the trustees,

asking for the college to divest its endowment holdings from fossil fuel companies.

In the letter requesting divestment, Williams faculty members wrote that just as the school’s mission statement says an education at Williams is a privilege to serve the society, the college should “model such responsibility for our students, just as we must take seriously our own commitment of ‘ensuring that our college operations are sustainable’ — a sustainability that includes operations of our budget, and thus, our investments.”

Political Union Hosts Bloodsworth Continued from Page 1 and the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Program, which provides funds for DNA testing for the accused.

“The death penalty doesn’t work if you execute an innocent person,” Bloodsworth said.

“Life imprisonment is a better punishment, and it’s a safety net in case of innocence. You can’t walk over the innocent to execute the guilty.”

After telling his story, Bloodsworth answered questions from the audience. When asked if he believed that Ruffner, the real killer, deserved to die, he responded, “Did Ruffner deserve to die?

Maybe, but we had to save him to save me.”

Amherst Political Union president Liam Fine ’17 said that Bloodsworth’s invitation to campus was partially the result of Bloodsworth’s personal connection with a current student, Tommy Raskin ’17.

“Mr. Bloodsworth first came on our radar in January, after our director of public affairs, Tommy Raskin, expressed his desire to bring him to campus,” Fine said. “Tommy’s father had

worked closely with Mr. Bloodsworth in the past to abolish the death penalty in Maryland.”

The death penalty remains a highly contentious issue in the United States, where it is used as punishment for severe crimes by the federal government, the military and 32 states.

Capital punishment was struck down by the courts in Massachusetts in 1984. Currently, most countries, including all of Western Europe and Canada, have abolished the death penalty; the United States and Japan are two of the only world powers that have not.

Fine said he hopes the conversation about the death penalty should continue beyond the event itself.

“It is our sincere hope that Mr. Bloodsworth’s event will not be seen as just another interesting speaking event at Amherst, but more importantly, an event which sparks intense discourse on campus and really forces students to exercise their civic duty by becoming educated citizens and bringing about change in the world,” Fine said.

Peace Corps at Amherst College Information Table & Info Session Tuesday, March 10 Keefe Campus Center

Information Table: 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Information Session: 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Choose where you want to go. Apply in one hour.

Make a difference overseas as a Peace Corps Volunteer

peacecorps.gov - 855.855.1961

Opinion

THE AMHERST

STUDENT

Gaining an Internship, Losing an Opportunity Editorial

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

Amherst students see themselves as the best of the best. Despite how young we are and how many careers we have left to explore, many of us feel we must have a plan. Political science majors have to get that finance internship with an immediate job offer. Pre-med students feel the need to take the summer to study for the MCAT so they can tackle medical school immediately (sometimes after a gap year). Not to mention law school, fellowships and consulting jobs. In order to fulfill all these ambitious goals, we Amherst students feel the need to pad our resumes with the most relevant non-academic experiences. The Career Center and the student body, especially after sophomore and junior years, begin to care less about seeking out experience for experience’s sake and more about how good it will look on a one-page sheet of paper desperately emailed out to whoever will take it.

In our scramble for the most competitive summer intern-

ships and our constant states of stress, we lose sight of the possibilities that our summers afford us. The original point of internships is to allow us to explore our interests. We’re supposed to branch out both geographically and ideologically during these few summer breaks that we have. College is universally seen as the time in our lives when we can explore new opportunities that are hard to get afterwards. Our summers are no exception.

Yet the expectations and opportunities set up by the Amherst Career Center have made this ideal increasingly difficult to achieve. Firstly, many students don’t have the funding to simply travel outside of studying abroad, and the dismantling of programs devoted to teaching abroad, such as Amherst China Initiative, make international internships even harder to get. The “hot jobs” in finance and consulting the Career Center continually, almost exclusively advertises promote this “direct-to-job” after-college mentality. Ultimately, Amherst students shouldn’t lose sight of the potential experiences they can have in the overpowering wake of the job search. Internships are meant to challenge and excite us while exposing us to new fields, not to pigeonhole us into certain others. We’ll have many jobs in our lives, not just one after graduating. Multiple, diverse experiences that excite you will only help you to figure out what your passions are in the long run.

Amherst as an Eco-Friendly Institution Isa Goldberg ’17 Staff Writer Many of you have noticed the framed photos of students working on Book & Plow Farm adorning the walls of Valentine Hall, or maybe you attended last year’s Farm Fest at Book & Plow. Both are examples of recent endeavors aiming to raise the profile of Amherst’s green initiatives.

“It is part of the ethos of the operational department on campus to conserve and to ensure that we are minimizing our environmental footprint,” said Jim Brassord, Chief of Operations at the college. “We’ve had some really good successes, but they’ve been quiet, behind-thescenes successes.”

Those successes have included innovative transportation strategies. For example, Amherst was one of the first colleges to use biofuels in all of its diesel equipment. More notably, Amherst was the first college to implement a Zipcar program, allowing students as young as 18 years old to rent cars from the convenience of O’Connell Lot. Each Zipcar takes 15 personally-owned vehicles off the road. Moreover, Zipcars decrease the growing need for parking space on campus by offering an alternative mode of transportation. At nearby Smith College in Northampton, Director of Media Relations

Kristen Cole attested to the improvement that Zipcars have brought to the Valley.

“More and more students were bringing cars to the college,” she said. “Unfortunately, public transportation didn’t seem to have enough of an impact on the number of cars.”

Zipcars allowed Smith — and Amherst — to put plans for additional parking spaces on hold.

From an energy production standpoint, Amherst created a cogeneration plant that will continue to reduce the college’s carbon footprint.

“The traditional way of deriving energy for a campus is to hook into a grid and to obtain all your electricity from a utility company, but that is an inherently inefficient process,” Brassord said. The reason: a byproduct of generating electricity is heat. When energy is produced remotely at a power plant, heat is lost into the atmosphere at the point of production. There are significant line-losses — or waste — that occur when electrons must be moved from the point at which the electricity is produced to the destination where the energy will be used.

That process — the traditional way of powering a campus or home — is only 33 percent efficient.

A new approach to energy production has since developed, which hasn’t been widely accepted until recently. The ap-

proach employs the decentralization of energy production, in which energy is produced at the point of its use.

“Amherst’s cogeneration plant captures the waste and heat that comes off of the production [of energy], and puts it to use to provide heat and, ironically, cooling, to the place where it’s being generated,” Brassord said. The plant reduces the heat that’s wasted when electrons are sent down wires from distant, isolated energy plants. It also sports a state-ofthe-art Emissions Control NOx Reduction Unit, which reduces the release of nitrous oxides, which cause ozone (smog) to form on hot summer days.

The total project, which cost $8.7 million, produces 60 percent of the campus’ electricity.

It will take only seven years to recoup the funds invested by the college. The Green Amherst website features a virtual tour of the power plant and even showcases the Operations Department’s sense of humor: There is a photo of the plant’s winding pipes with the caption “This is not a screensaver.”

In terms of the direction in which sustainability at Amherst is headed, Brassord has plenty of good news. Last summer, the college established an Office of Sustainability with Laura Draucker as director. Draucker noted that last week’s letter from the Board of Trustees solidifies

Amherst’s trajectory towards a carbon-neutral campus. By the time the letter was released, the college had already established a Climate Task Force, which is charged with determining both the dates associated with the carbon-neutrality timeline as well as how the college can achieve the accompanying initiatives.

The task force, which consists of hand-picked students, staff and faculty members, will meet in two weeks, and will tackle the issue of offsets in the process of working towards a carbon-neutral footprint. Draucker believes that it is critical to redefine what offsets mean for colleges and universities, in order to use offsets in a way that better supports the missions of educational institutions. The task force will work to make the college’s offsets a visible, interactive learning experience through initiatives such as retrofitting buildings.

If the college were to “pay away the problem” by buying offsets, the concept of going green would be invisible and abstract to students; moreover, buying offsets could trap the college into picking a low-cost solution with a lower impact. Draucker and Brassord are working to ensure that Amherst’s carbon-reducing operations meet in the middle, like the cogeneration

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E X E C U T I V E B OA R D Editor-in-Chief Sophie Murguia Executive Adviser Brendan Hsu Managing News Dan Ahn, Sophie Chung, Elaine Jeon Managing Opinion Johnathan Appel, Marie Lambert Managing Arts and Living Marquez Cummings, Gabby Edzie, Evan Paul Managing Sports Kiana Herold, Lauren Tuiskula S TA F F

Design Editors Gabby Bishop, Megan Do, William Harvey, Sunna Juhn, Chloe Tausk Assistant News Editor Ryan Cenek Assistant Sports Editors Kiana Herold, Jeremy Kesselhaut, Jason Darell, Jason Stein Publishers Emily Ratte, Tia Robinson Photography Editor Olivia Tarantino

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The Amherst Student • March 4, 2015

Opinion

5

School Takes Steps Towards Becoming Greener Continued from previous page plant: low-cost but high-impact.

“Offsets are always going to be a part of the picture, but it’s doing it in a smart way that is critical,” Draucker said. “Even if we run 100 percent on renewable energy … we’re still buying food, and food has a carbon footprint. Chances are, we’re going to have to offset some of that.”

On the topic of food, as of 2013, Amherst Dining Services — with the help of Book & Plow Farm — is effectively incorporating more local produce into the student meal plan, thus reducing the carbon footprint associated with transporting food over long distances. The relationship between Dining Services and Book & Plow Farm is an example of the “farm to institution” model — another area in which Amherst is a trailblazer, as we are one of the first colleges to employ such a program. This past year, the farm hosted four summer interns and produced over 20,000 pounds of fresh produce. Next growing season, the farm plans to host eight interns, to increase its work-study program and to significantly increase its acreage in order to provide 100,000 pounds of local, organic produce to the college.

“We’ve had over 900 volunteers who wanted to come work on the farm — incredible,” said Pete McLean, co-founder of Book & Plow. “And that’s in our second year that that happened. For work study students … we’ve hosted almost 5,000 hours of work study, with students that would rather labor and toil and be out in the rain and in the cold and in the heat, than swipe a card at the gym.”

In his feature presentation in front of a filled Kirby Theater for Amherst Live last January, Farmer Pete mentioned some

staggering statistics: Last year, the wom- tiatives on campus? Brassord recommends To get more involved, contact Thais en’s lacrosse team voluntarily planted 2,250 the fish: He and the Operations Depart- Correia ’16 and Pete Suechting ’15. In adcloves of garlic, laid down 50 bales of straw ment have been working with the Aqua- dition, Pioneer Valley Citizen Summer for mulching and picked 1,500 pounds of ponics Club to construct an aquaponic features an opportunity to work on Book carrots and 300 pounds of parsnips, all in food system on the south side of Valentine & Plow Farm, and there is also a Book & three hours. “That’s filling me with a lot of Dining Hall.

Plow internship available through Amherst hope,” he said.

“We wanted to locate it in a way that Select, for which the application due date Andrew Kendall, a proponent of the would be most impactful, because if we did is March 15. Farmer Ryan Karb at Many farm to institution model, is the Executive it in a remote site off-campus and students Hands Farm (manyhandsfarmcorps.com), Director of the Henry P. Kendall Founda- were unable to see it, a lot of the lessons just down the street from Amherst College, tion and recently came to Amherst to speak and benefits would be lost,” he said. is also offering farm internships. as a panelist on the topic of “Food Farm, and Health of the Community.” Kendall issued a call to action to the audience, which was a mix of students, faculty, and community members.

“I would end by turning the tables and posing a challenge to all of you to find a way to get involved in our food system. It’s complex, there are a million different entry points, and you’ll never figure out the right one, so just jump in and get working,” he said. “If this is something that interests you, find a way in. ... It’s such a simple concept, and … the benefits accrue to all of the actors within the institution, and the community surrounding it. So, the Photo courtesy of Isa Goldberg ’17 challenge is on.”

Interested in getting Amherst students work at the Book & Plow Farm as part of a work-study or involved with green ini- volunteer program, the latter of which is in its second year of operation.

28 Days Short: Why Celebration of Black History Shouldn’t Be Confined to One Month Yelim Youm ’18 Staff Writer Despite the recent bout of snow, the past few days have been a bit warmer than before. The sun’s been out, we haven’t been quite as dangerously close to frostbite and it’s the beginning of March. February, the coldest month of the year, is behind us. And so is Black History Month.

Black History Month has its origins in 1926, when the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and the historian Carter G. Woodson declared the second week of February to be “Negro History Week.” Woodson believed in the value of memory, claiming that keeping track of history would lend legitimacy and importance to the U.S. black population. In 1976, “Negro History Week” expanded to become what is known today as Black History Month, and has been celebrated ever since.

Despite its noble mission, it seems as though Black History Month has been full of nothing but controversy in the past few years. Every February, there’s an onslaught of articles with titles screaming “Does Black History Month Separate More Than It Unites?” and “Black History Month — Meh” (both of these are real ar-

ticles). Many say that American society no longer requires Black History Month, that its mission is outdated. According to them, we live in a “post-racial” nation, and the presence of Black History Month, instead of celebrating the achievements of black Americans, only prolongs racism by drawing attention to our differences instead of similarities. There are also those who support the mission of Black History Month but argue that it has become empty, transformed into something completely different from what it had been. They talk, of course, of rampant commercialization by companies such as Coca-Cola, which have used Black History Month to boost sales and specifically target the Black American community.

I can’t argue that this type of commercialization isn’t tarnishing the mission of Black History Month, and that companies must stop shamelessly taking advantage of something they do not have a right to. Yet Black History Month is much too valuable to relegate to nothingness. And though those who do not support Black History Month because of its commercialization do at least have a valid point, I can’t say the same for those who claim the U.S. to be a “post-racial” society. Post-racialism is a

myth that even a quick glance at the state of race relations in the U.S. would shatter. The recent issues of police brutality against minorities, the fact of unequal opportunity for minorities everywhere across the nation, even the feeling of being overlooked and belittled that some Amherst students report right here on campus — all of these shatter the ideal of post-racialism, a glass web of misunderstandings, rose-tinted goggles and lies, into a thin mist of nothingness. Racism is alive and well in the United States.

Black History Month is a noble yet inadequate effort to counter racism. It is true that we could improve how we choose to celebrate it. Maybe there are better, more lasting ways of celebration than requiring children to memorize lists of names or idealizing historical figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and W.E.B DuBois and making them into larger-thanlife heroes, but even the presence of Black History Month alone is a much-needed reminder of the issues black Americans face. Just the fact that it was February is leading to this controversy and the subsequent conversations and even this very article, right? And even just having these conversations is leading to a society that’s just a little more aware, a little better educat-

ed. And Black History Month does play a role in fostering a citizenry that is more aware of the contributions of its minorities. Without it, you would have never even heard of the people, black Americans who have made their marks on history, on those lists. To those who say that Black History Month only prolongs racism, I can only say that it exists already, and that we had better acknowledge it if we’re going to acknowledge the presence of black American history at all and work toward reducing it. As they say, the first step of healing is acceptance.

Despite its value, Black History Month has quite a disappointing presence here at Amherst. How have we acknowledged the month?

The tiny display of relevant books at Frost? The performance by Harlem Gospel Choir this past weekend? The one MLK quotation over the entrance to Val or Frost? It’s too little, and so low-impact that most of the campus probably hasn’t noticed at all. Two weeks ago, at a meeting of the EDU, we discussed the value of Black History Month.

The members took turns reflecting on their relationships with Black History Month and what they perceived as its value. Over the course of the conversation, I was forced to think a little deeper, a little more,

about the role of minorities in U.S. society and the mission of Black History Month itself. It widened the scope of my perception of Black History Month. What Amherst, and the rest of the nation, needs is more conversations like this — but not just in February. We need bigger, year-round displays.

We need acknowledgement of black history, as well as the history of other minorities in academic classes. We need to do this in order to show just how wide of a variety of people has contributed to our history and our culture to give rise to the society we live in today. We need to do this to give rise to more conversation, which will lead to awareness and eventually, hopefully, to a lasting change.

When he declared “Negro History Week” into existence, Woodson envisioned an end as well as a beginning. He hoped that the need for Black History Month would disappear. That hasn’t happened yet. So instead of arguing against Black History Month, we need to do the opposite — broaden its scope, emphasize its existence, bring in more fanfare and confetti, more articles and arguments.

We have to do this at least until, as Woodson imagined, black American history and American history become one and the same.

Arts&Living

Image courtesy of gemm.com

Eric Bentley, pictured left, represents the world’s foremost authority on Bertolt Brecht, a famous poet, playwright and theatre director of the 20th century.

Copeland Colloquium Spotlight: An Interview With Eric Bentley Paul Gramieri ’17 Contributing Writer

Soprano Karyn Levitt and pianist Eric Ostling will perform “In the Dark Times: Three 20th Century Austro-German Composers Who Worked with Bertolt Brecht,” a show that features the collaborated works of poet Bertolt Brecht, composers Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler and Paul Dessau, and translator Eric Bentley, in Porter House on Tuesday, March 10th at 4:30 p.m. as part of this year’s Copeland Colloquium.

Born in 1898, Brecht began writing plays during World War I while enrolled in medical school to avoid the military draft. Following the war, he became the dramaturg at the leading Deutsches Theater in Berlin, where he had much inspiration to begin developing and creating his own works for the theater.

In this post, during the innovative years of the Weimar Republic, he collaborated with musician Kurt Weill to write some of his most famous early operas, including “The Threepenny Opera” and “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.”

It was at this time that he also began to forge a longer lasting collaboration with Hanns Eisler, and the relationship between these two men focused mostly on poems and songs. Although Eisler did write the music for many of Brecht’s plays, their songs in particu-

lar gained popularity quickly, as they focused on the lives of the lower classes in society such as the unemployed and working poor.

With the Nazis gaining power in Germany in the 1930s, many of Brecht’s works were banned across the country, and consequently Brecht fled Germany to escape any impending persecution. He moved around Scandinavia before settling in Denmark, where he remained until he gained a visa to enter the United States in 1941. While in Denmark, Brecht continued his collaboration with Eisler, and his works of Exilliteratur reflected not only his own exile from Germany but also his opposition to the Fascism movement that was gaining traction there.

Coming to the United States did give Brecht more artistic freedom to explore his own beliefs, and while in the U.S. he began collaborations with Paul Dessau and Eric Bentley. Paul Dessau wrote the musical scores to some of Brecht’s most famous works of musical theater, including The Good Person of Szechwan and The Caucasian Chalk Circle; he also wrote the music to some of Brecht’s other songs and poems.

Brecht met Eric Bentley quite by chance, while Bentley was working as a professor at University of California Los Angeles in 1942, and a series of agreements to translate some plays and poems led Bentley’s career to be very much focused on the translation of Brecht’s

works after his passing. A professional critic and former professor at Columbia University, Bentley is now 98 years old and is considered the world’s foremost authority on Brecht.

Brecht’s time in the United States allowed him to better explore his own beliefs. Opposed to Fascism, Brecht studied Marxism and socialism, and was a committed Marxist ever since reading Das Kapital in 1926; he claimed that understanding Marxism helped him better to understand his own plays. Many of his later works reveal his personal struggle to comprehend and articulate his own beliefs, especially after being blacklisted and having to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee. He returned to Europe in 1947, first to Switzerland and then to East Germany, where he remained supportive of local socialism movements until his death in 1956.

In 1967, Bentley consolidated many of Brecht’s songs and poems that were put to music by Weill, Eisler and Dessau into The Brecht-Eisler Song Book, which includes the works that Karyn Levitt and Eric Ostling will be performing at Amherst next week. Bentley coached both of them on their performances of these works, so as to best reflect the moods and emotions that Brecht himself wished to convey.

I spoke with Bentley over winter break to discuss his own translation strategy and

Brecht’s legacy. He talked about the layers of meaning within Brecht’s works: Brecht’s German texts contain a layer of meaning, then setting the text to music adds another layer, as does translation and as does performance Bentley cautioned about writing literal translations, especially of poetry, because they all too often became too semantic in the story that they tried to tell, and described that, in an effort to uphold the transformative nature of these works, the need to keep them fluid.

“Translation of poetry, whether or not it’s been close to the original, has to itself be poetic and have poetic power, if the original has poetic power,” said Bentley during our discussion. “If there’s a joke in the dialogue, and when you translate it, it isn’t funny, you have to substitute a joke that is funny in the language you’re speaking. If you carry that principle out, it justifies a lot.”

Levitt and Ostling’s performance adds another layer of meaning to these works, by bringing them to life while engaging with their audience to better convey the emotion contained within these works. The songs that they perform have strength in the messages they convey about individuals, society and ideas. Like the other events part of this year’s Copeland Colloquium, this performance enables us to ask about the power of language and to explore the art of translation while also being exposed to literary masterpieces.

Mr. Gad’s House of Improv Welcomes Three New Members Daniella Colombo ’17 Staff Writer

Walking through the hallway into Val or the entrance of Keefe you’re likely to have been struck by the promotional posters on display for the weekly shows put on by Mr. Gad’s House of Improv.

Perhaps it was one for “Mr. Gad’s Classic Game Night” featuring Khalil Flemming’s head on a game of Whack-a-Mole, or an aging Jesse Pagliuca on a box of men’s Touch of Gray coloring formula, advertising “Mr. Gad’s House of Midlife Crisis.”

The eye-catching posters often comically incorporate photographs of the cast with images from pop culture or daily life in order to convey the theme for the upcoming show. Every Monday night at 10 p.m. in the Friedmann room you can join the members of the ensemble as they engage

in an hour of long and short-form improv comedy, a form of theater in which everything performed on stage is completely unscripted and invented by the actors on the spot.

A typical night opens with a greeting by one of the cast members, followed by the introduction of the first game to be played and the members of the cast that will be participating. The rules of the game are conveyed to the audience, and are often accompanied by a request for descriptive input from the crowd to set the scene, or for a volunteer to join the Gad’s members up on stage. By the end of the night, the actors in the ensemble will have rotated to put on a show of at least five games, with the final one often including the cast performing as a whole. The house is likely to leave the room in high spirits after an hour packed with laughter and

energy.

All members of the group are unique in their comedic styles and thus the diversity brought to the table is certain to make for an exciting show. Any viewer is sure to find entertainment in the intersection of the various different styles of humor encapsulated in the performances put on by members Jesse Pagliuca ‘16, Khalil Flemming ‘16, Danny Curtis ’16 (abroad) Liz Mutter ‘15, Romey Sklar ‘15, Ricky Altieri ‘15, Nathaniel Werner ‘18, Long You ‘17, and graduates Will Savino ’14 (a green dean in Amherst admissions) and Bessie Young ’11 (post-bac at Mt. Holyoke). The ease with which performance seems to come for these members, and the amusement and diversion one finds while watching a Mr. Gad’s show make it easy to overlook the fact that none of what is being produced on stage has

been rehearsed. The members are faced with the expectation to not only perform on their feet, but to also spark laughter in the audience while doing so — a task that inevitably carries great pressure.

Comedy improv is a unique form of theater that requires a distinct set of strengths, different from those needed for other types of acting. Skills needed in concentration, quick thinking, and foresight require practice in order to develop and cannot be gained overnight. Many of the members in Gad’s, however, had been unfamiliar with improv before joining the ensemble. Every semester Gad’s holds workshops to offer people the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the types of activities done during auditions.

Auditions follow the workshops, and after

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Arts & Living 7

The Amherst Student • March 4, 2015

First Years Henriksen, Qasim and Werner Join Improv Group Continued from previous page auditions are callbacks from which the new members are selected. The Gad’s members must unanimously agree in order for an individual to be selected.

There is no limit or certain number of people the ensemble seeks to accept each semester, and this semester they let in the most people they have let into Gad’s in the past five semesters. Lauren Weiss ‘18, Noor Qasim ‘18 and Justin Henriksen ‘18 are the three newest members to join the group. This semester the three are training with the group, as all new members do, prior to being able to begin performing regularly on Monday nights.

Pagliuca described the newest members as great additions to the group due to their “completely different styles of humor, which adds to the variety in the group.”

He said Qasim’s poise on stage impressed the Gad’s members during her auditions, along with her versatility and instincts as an improviser who can either lead a scene or move it forward in a supporting role. Weiss’ quick-wittedness and incredible comedic delivery paired with her ability to establish relationships in a scene is a recipe for the organic expression of a funny improv scene. Pagliuca said he expects Henriksen will be well-

liked by the audience members, as he is light-hearted, clever and committed to scenes while onstage.

In an interview, Henriksen said that prior to coming to Amherst, he had acted both in and out of school, but had not had much exposure to improv prior to auditioning for Mr. Gad’s.

“I didn’t know who they were until second semester after going to a few of the shows,” he said. “It was really fun to watch, and it seemed like they were having a blast.”

Henriksen attended the workshops, auditioned and got called back. He recounted being surprised with news of his acceptance by a loud bang on his door in the early hours of the morning by the entire Gad’s ensemble. He said initial disappointment upon learning he would not actually be performing until after this semester of training soon subsided as he realized the intimidation that would surely come along with performing in an atmosphere other than the comfort of practicing with the other Gad’s members.

“I don’t really mind the length of training,” he said. “My first time up there is going to be really intimidating. You don’t feel any judgment from the Gad’s group during practice, but once you’re up there performing, you better be funny.”

Image courtesy of Gad’s Facebook Page

Gad’s recently accepted three members, the largest addition in two years.

Bookstore Provides a Scenic Alternative to Amherst Center Sophie Currin ’17 Staff Writer With sunny 30-degree days becoming less and less rare, early March proves to be a great time to visit the Montague Bookmill. The Bookmill is a conglomerate of three 180-year-old buildings overlooking the Sawmill River in Montague, just 25 minutes outside of Amherst. Converted from an industrial site to a bookstore in 1987, the area now hosts an eclectic mix of businesses — a local art store, a music and video store, a cafe, a restaurant and, of course, the used book store (which was recently acquired by screenwriter Susan

Shilliday of “thirtysomething.”)

I had heard rumors of the Bookmill before — only praise — but I had little idea of what it was; my expectations didn’t reach beyond “pretty cool” and “should be on that Amherst to-do list.” This past Saturday, I woke up wanting to be back at an old comfortable spot on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Palos Verdes, California. Impossible, of course, but I still felt the need to escape the Amherst bubble for just a while. Without going so far as to look it up online, I took my chances and set off for this fabled location in rural Mass.

The beautiful, winding drive through the snow-sodden, tree-covered hills provided

Image courtesy of wikipedia.org

The Montague Bookmill, located in Montague, is an easy drive from campus.

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a respite from the chaotic activity from Amherst, foreshadowing the otherworldliness I would find at the Bookmill. The trip had the effect of extracting me from routine, from the normality of Saturdays.

Post-parking, my friend and I zigzagged around the pools of dirt-infiltrated melting snow, making our way to the first door in sight — the one to Sawmill River Arts. The wood floors creaked a little as we wandered around, looking at everything from handcrafted earrings to glass-blown drinking glasses to knitted dolls. Proceeds from sales at the store go to fight AIDS in Africa.

But something that sounded like James Taylor was wafting upwards, making its way through the old wood floors and drawing our curiosity. Back outside and around down the hill, we found Turn It Up!, a music and video store, where an old shaggy black dog greeted us. The now-rare option to physically buy music and DVDs (especially from a section titled “The best and the worst of the ‘80s”) made it comforting and fun, bringing back childhood memories of hours spent in Blockbuster.

The building across the way, now closer to the river, holds the famous Bookmill shop, with the motto “Books you don’t need in a place you can’t find.” We walked through the stacks, catching glimpses of the waterfall and melting creek down below through each window, and eventually meeting the door to the attached Lady Killigrew Cafe.

In the cafe, we could hear low-volume folk music and conversation accompanied by the occasional clicks of typing. The open, split-level cafe offers, among many other things, a goat cheese and pepper sandwich, maple flavored milk, various pastries — and of course, a view of the

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river, a place to work or relax. We ordered hot chocolate with maple whipped cream and chocolate chip cookies, and walked outside to the wooden deck we had spotted earlier. The deck has open-bulb string lights overhead and becomes a coveted seating area once the weather gets warmer.

Balancing our plates on the railing, we ate and watched the frigid, almost glossy water fall across the ice and rocks half covered in snow. The location highlighted the aesthetic advantages the cold provides, and assuming that the Bookmill’s beauty holds in any weather, it seems like this would be a place to enjoy the best of all four seasons.

A door at the back of the deck led to the restaurant, The Alvah Stone, which offers weekend brunch, Wednesday through Friday and dinner Tuesday through Sunday.

We were invited to walk around the rustic dinning room, with tables for two lining the riverside of the restaurant. And, most importantly, the food looks wonderful and fresh.

The Bookmill is more than a place to get lost for the day — it hosts a variety of events, including a weekly winter movie night (called “Free Films for the Frozen”) and musical guests.

Maybe it was the unusual respite from the cold weather or the friendly employees, but on Saturday morning the Bookmill filled me with happiness, curiosity and the hope of spring approaching. And I’m not alone in my awe of the Bookmill: In the past few years, the Bookmill has been reviewed and praised by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe. It’s an often-overlooked gem, so removed from the rest of the world that it becomes a place where time almost ceases to exist. Put it on the list.

Arts & Living 8

The Amherst Student • March 4, 2015

Third Season of Netflix Original Series Captivates While Playing it Safe Alexandra James ’16 Staff Writer “House of Cards” released its third season on Feb. 27. This long-anticipated season was unveiled on Netflix, with each episode available to steam instantly. “House of Cards” produced two seasons in this fashion. Each season before the third has already taken home awards at the Emmys and Golden Globes. Since then, “House of Cards” has solidified itself as a television powerhouse, lauded by critics and viewers alike.

This article does contain major spoilers from seasons 1 and 2, as well as minor spoilers from season 3.

Frank and Claire Underwood, portrayed by Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright respectively, are the riveting, power-hungry couple who will stop at nothing to become the President and First Lady of the United States. Over the course of the first two seasons, they accomplished just that. Season 2 concludes with Frank Underwood hungrily staring at the historic desk inside the Oval Office, cutting to black as he knocks on it. Now that Frank has done everything, even committing an act of murder, to achieve his dream, what is new for him? What else can the Underwoods do now?

Season 3, unlike the previous two, focuses on the Underwoods’ quest to keep the power they have just gained. After all, Frank Underwood was not elected to the presidency; thus, he has to scheme up ways to make sure he will be elected in 2016. Frank does not lose his original charm as he makes quips directly to the camera and secretly plots with his wife. While it follows a formula that has already been successful for “House of Cards,” season 3 presents new problems that are grander and harder to control.

Political control is not as easy for Frank as it was before.

Frank Underwood continues his elaborate political plans, but the situation is different.

He no longer has his faithful Chief of Staff, Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly), and Claire Underwood wishes to spread her wings in the political sphere as the U.N. ambassador. Every episode seems to be a new problem for the Underwoods: the Democratic Party demanding Frank Underwood not to run for reelection, the Russian president creating a near crisis in the Jordan Valley and the emotional tolls the presidency takes on both Frank and Claire.

Rather than focusing on the Frank’s political prowess, season 3 uses the episodes to push him to his limit. Frank is constantly playing catch-up rather than staying ahead. The stress of the presidency is clear as his comments to the camera cease all together and a few slivers of humanity slip through his actions. For example, he chooses not to politically destroy a Supreme Court justice who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Even Claire reveals her own unhappiness in her marriage with Frank, describing it as a flirtation with suicide. Neither one is immune to the stress and hardship of the presidency, and their own political finesse slips as they no longer seem to be the power couple that was shown in the past. It is this very slippage that eventually causes their own downfall. “House of Cards” has become the modern day Shakespearean tragedy. While the first two seasons focused on the rise to power, it is evident that season 3 depicts the eventual fall of Frank Underwood.

How much will he lose in his own quest to keep the presidency?

This season has taken the tale of Frank Underwood to a new frontier. It is a storyline that is unexpected, but somehow it works.

Kevin Spacey masterfully balances the political ambition and the emotional burdens of Frank Underwood, adding more levels to an already complex character. While “House of Cards” experiments with some risky plot points, from a near-war with Russia to a New Dealesque policy, the writing and acting somehow

make each situation seem conceivable in today’s political world. Of course, there are the plot lines that do not work, from Doug Stamper’s fall into alcoholism to Frank hiring a biographer for propaganda reasons. However, it is the fact that there is experimentation in the show that makes it different from other cable broadcast series.

“House of Cards” season 3 is not nearly as groundbreaking or riveting as its predecessors; however, it experiments and toys with ideas that push the Underwoods to their limits. Rather than focusing on appeasing the audiences and gain ratings, “House of Cards” is uncompromising in its quest to create fully developed

characters whose struggles reflect the political climate of today. Perhaps it is the unique delivery method of online streaming that allows “House of Cards” to take some risks that other TV shows don’t taken. But, for a series that has already asserted its dominance in the television world, season 3 seems to take the lazy way out rather than breaking more barriers in the same way as seasons 1 and 2.

In the end, though, season 3 is unlikely to harm “House of Cards” in terms of viewership or critical acclaim. Season 3 is just a safe continuation of the “House of Cards” dynasty, properly developing and destroying the characters in this world without too much surprise.

Image courtesy of salon.com

Frank Underwood, played brilliantly by Kevin Spacey, represents the main character of the hit series.

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Sports 9

Men’s Basketball Second in NESCAC, Advances to NCAA Tourney Jason Stein ’16 Assistant Editor Men’s basketball made its fourth straight appearance in the NESCAC championship this past Sunday, but was unable to secure its fourth consecutive NESCAC championship after a nail-biting overtime loss to Wesleyan. However, even though Amherst’s loss meant that Wesleyan earned the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, Amherst will be making its fifth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance due to the team’s strong work during the 2014-2015 regular season and 2015 NESCAC tournament.

During the NESCAC semifinals this past Saturday, the fifth-seeded Jeffs posted a convincing victory over Bowdoin (the No. 2 seed in the NESCAC tournament) in a game hosted at Trinity.

Early in the game, the Jeffs and the Polar Bears exchanged points back and forth. About midway through the first half, the Jeffs trailed the Polar Bears, 14-13. However, 8 straight points from the Jeffs gave Amherst a 21-14 lead with approximately eight minutes left in the first half.

In the final stretch of the half, Amherst outscored the Jeffs 17-10 to head into the break with a sizable 38-24 lead.

The Jeffs would continue to build their lead gradually in the second half. An Amherst layup gave the Jeffs a 54-34 lead with 11:36 remaining, which the Jeffs would maintain for the remainder of the game. While the Polar Bears pulled to within 14 points with roughly nine minutes to go, a 16-4 run by the Jeffs gave Amherst a 26-point lead with five minutes left in the game.

Amherst would easily hold on and advance to the NESCAC finals with a 76-56 victory.

In the game, the Jeffs shot particularly well from 3-point range, as Amherst’s 10-25 from beyond the arc was much stronger than Bowdoin’s 3-point accuracy. The Jeffs had eight team steals and limited its turnovers to only seven against the Polar Bears. The Jeffs also outscored the Polar

Bears by a whopping 42-0 mark in bench points.

For Amherst, first-year guard Jayde Dawson scored an efficient 21 points in 20 minutes, hitting two 3-pointers and shooting 7-8 on free throws. Amherst had four players in double figures, as sophomore guard Jeff Racy had 16 points, including going a perfect 3-3 on 3-pointers and 5-5 from the foul line, first-year guard Johnny McCarthy had 14 points and 13 rebounds for the double-double and forward David George ’17 was a strong presence inside with 13 points and five offensive rebounds.

Joining the Jeffs in the NESCAC finals was Wesleyan after they knocked off top-seeded Trinity in a close game in the semifinals. Although the Jeffs had beaten the Cardinals by an average score of 20 points during two games in the regular season, the Cardinals would bounce back against Amherst in postseason play.

The Cardinals carried their momentum over from the NESCAC semifinals, as Wesleyan jumped out to a quick 10-2 lead over the Jeffs.

While Amherst trailed 19-10 with a little less than 12 minutes remaining in the first half of play, the Jeffs mounted a comeback by going on a 15-0 run to take a 25-19 lead with 6:51 left in the half. The Amherst lead was short-lived, however, as Wesleyan then outscored Amherst 17-2 over the remainder of the half to take a 36-27 lead.

While the Cardinals secured a double-digit lead early in the second half, Amherst would pull closer to Wesleyan during the second half, and would remain within striking distance of the Cardinals throughout the half. The resilient Jeffs managed to tie the game at 53-53 with a bit more than eight minutes to go. Amherst pulled even once again at 63-63 after a jump shot from Dawson with 3:35 to go in the second half, which would shockingly be the last points of regulation for either team and lead to overtime.

Both teams were unable to score at the end of regulation and for the first few minutes of overtime, but the Cardinals finally broke the scoring spell and took a 68-63 lead with about

90 seconds to go. A miracle 3-pointer from McCarthy narrowed the Cardinals’ overtime lead to 2 points with just under a minute remaining, and a layup from Dawson once again cut Wesleyan’s lead to two points with 12 seconds left, but the Jeffs came up empty in its final attempt to draw even in the closing seconds of the game. In the end, the Cardinals topped the Jeffs 74-70 and earned an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.

Even in the loss against Wesleyan, there were some encouraging performances for the Jeffs. Forward Eric Conklin ’17 posted a careerhigh 19 points on 9-9 shooting, as he dominated inside and was able to capitalize on the Cardinals’ defensive plan to stop George in the post.

Dawson (14 points) and McCarthy (10 points) cracked double figures for the second straight day, while sophomore forward Jacob Nabatoff added 12 points against the Cardinals. While the Jeffs and Cardinals shot similarly well from the field, the Jeffs struggled from 3-point range relative to the Cardinals and compared to their strong shooting in the NESCAC semifinals.

While Amherst had balanced scoring in both games this past weekend and Dawson and Conklin emerged with breakout performances, junior guard/forward Connor Green was noticeably absent. The standout player struggled to find his signature shooting touch and post his typical offensive production this weekend.

“For much of the latter half of the season, we relied on Connor to be the guy he has been,” junior forward and captain Ben Pollack said. “And he’s been more than that, too. When he is not feeling it, you have to have other guys step up.

On Saturday we did, and on Sunday, we didn’t as much, which was kind of the difference in the games.”

Pollack described the championship game as a “valuable learning experience for a young team.”

“We’re learning from it going forward, and we are not going to let the loss hold us back as

Photo courtesy of Rob Mattson

First-year standout Johnny McCarthy averages 10.7 points per game. we move on to the NCAA Tournament,” he said.

This Friday, the Jeffs (who stand at 20-7) will travel to Rochester, New York to take on Sage College (23-4) in a 5:30 p.m. game.

“Sage is kind of the antithesis of teams we saw this season, especially in the second half,” Pollack said. “The NESCAC is a league that relies on sharp-shooting skills and execution, and less on athleticism and strong players. This team presses almost the whole game, is really athletic, and might not be as good a shooting team as other teams we’ve faced. This is something we really haven’t seen so far, so we have to prepare for it as best as we can and are hoping to execute against them and take care of business on Friday.”

If the Jeffs advance on Friday, they will face the winner of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (21-5) and St. John Fisher College (23-4) in a Saturday evening matchup at 7 p.m.

Women’s Basketball Falls in NES- Men’s Hockey Fights Off Panthers, CACs, Will Play in NCAA Tourney Advances to NESCAC Semifinals

Photo courtesy of Rob Mattson

Meredith Doswell ’17 led the Jeffs with 14 points against Bowdoin.

Ashlyn Heller ’17 Staff Writer This past Saturday, Amherst squared off against Bowdoin in the semifinals of the NESCAC tournament. Despite three Jeffs scoring in double figures, the team was not able to come back from a strong run by the Polar Bears in the first half. After the first five minutes of play, Bowdoin gained momentum as they took the lead for good.

The Polar Bears went into the half with a 4322 lead, outshooting the Jeffs 53.1 percent to 30.8 percent from inside and 80 percent to 10 percent from downtown.

The second half told a very different story.

Amherst outscored Bowdoin in the second half 44-31 through first-year Hannah Hackley’s 13 points, sophomore Meredith Doswell’s 14 points

and junior Marley Giddins’ 10 points. Jackie Nagle ’18 pulled down five rebounds and Ali Doswell ’17 dished out six assists to help fuel the fire. However, it wouldn’t be enough. Bowdoin’s Shannon Brady put up 22 points followed closely by Marle Curle with 19 to help the Polar Bears hold on to their lead.

Despite the loss, Amherst’s season continues.

The team earned one of the 20 bids to the NCAA tournament, which features 64 of the best Div. III women’s basketball teams in the nation.

Amherst will travel to New York University to face the Eagles of Eastern University, who after finishing 22-5 on the season, are heading to the tournament for the first time in their program’s history.

After Amherst’s name was announced during the live broadcast of the selection show, the hosts commented on Amherst’s head coach G.P. Gromacki’s prowess in the NCAA tournament.

“They have quite a coach over there at Amherst, huh?” one host asked the other.

Since joining the program in 2007, Gromacki has led Amherst to seven NCAA tournament appearances and one national title in 2011. Gromacki looks to make it two this year as Amherst makes their eighth appearance in the tourney under his incredible leadership.

Gromacki has made earning an NCAA bid the norm for the sophomores, juniors, and seniors in his program. However, for the first-years, the tournament is a new and exciting experience.

“We just watched the draw online and couldn’t be more excited to be part of March Madness this year. It’s a privilege having the opportunity to play for a potential national championship, and I can’t wait for the journey with my team,” said Hannah Hackley ’18.

The journey begins this Friday as the Jeffs kick off their NCAA tournament run in New York City.

Greg Williams ’16 Staff Writer The men’s ice hockey team had a convincing victory over Middlebury this past weekend as the Jeffs defeated the Panthers in the NESCAC quarterfinals. The win ensured the Jeffs a spot in the upcoming NESCAC semifinals, which are to be held at Orr Rink against the eight seed, Tufts. The Jumbos eliminated topseeded Trinity in a thrilling upset during their quarterfinal match.

Middlebury came out fast despite their long trip and they had Amherst on the ropes for most of the period. With Middlebury outshooting the purple and white 11-2 in the frame, it looked like Amherst was going to be in for a long afternoon. Danny Vitale ’15 continued the stellar play he has been showing in the latter portion of the season and stuffed Middlebury on a number of good scoring chances. The first intermission came with neither team finding the back of the net and neither team being called for any penalties. The referees allowed the teams some wiggle room all night, in true playoff hockey fashion.

Most of the second period was back and forth. The Amherst adjustments during the break seemed to make a difference, as they found their stride a bit on offense as they got 16 shots on goal. David White ’18 recorded his 18th goal of the season with about five minutes remaining as he crashed the net, beating Panther net-minder Michael Peters. Aaron Deutsch ’15 and Topher Flanagan ’16 continued their assist streaks on the same play as both of them notched their 14th apples of the 2015 campaign. Both teams had one penalty each near the end of the period, but the game remained at 1-0 going into the third.

Five minutes into the third, Amherst ex-

tended their lead when senior Andrew Fenwick snuck the puck by Peters off of a good passing effort from Austin Ho ’17 and Tyler Granara ’18. Middlebury showed a spark of life as they tried to take advantage of an Amherst miscue, as the Jeffs were nailed with two penalties and found themselves on the penalty kill for nearly four minutes. But, consistent with their play all year, they managed to keep the Panther power play unit shutout. Out of desperation, Middlebury pulled their goalie for the last two minutes of the game, but it was to no avail, and Flanagan recorded the final score of the game with one second remaining in regulation to give Amherst a 3-0 win in their first playoff game.

The team now advances and will host the NESCAC semifinals this Saturday, March 7 with the contest beginning at 4 p.m.

Photo courtesy of Rob Mattson

Brendan Burke ’16 scored 5 goals and made 10 assists this season.

10

Sports

The Amherst Student • March 4, 2015

A Better Chance Fundraiser and Pink in the Rink: ATEL Update Lauren Tuiskula ’17 Managing Sports Editor Amherst College’s athletic team engagement initiative is fairly new, but in just a few years, has already had widespread impact.

The program is composed of individual “ATELs” (Athletic Team Engagement Leaders), individuals that represent each athletic team and facilitate team wide community engagement.

“The AL/ATEL program was established during my first year at Amherst,” junior athletic liaison Virginia Hassell said. “The growth of the program in a few short years has been enormous. During the inaugural year, only varsity athletes were included in the program.

Now, the program has expanded to include varsity and club sports.”

Following their annual retreat, held Jan. 18-19, the ATELs have been busy in the new semester, organizing numerous team engagement opportunities.

“The retreat is always one of my favorites parts of the year,” Hassell said. “For 24 hours, we work to equip the ATELs with the skills and knowledge that they need to most successfully inspire and organize engagement initiatives for their respective sports teams.”

Some highlights from the semester include Amherst women’s basketball’s ABC Fundraiser Game, an event held on Saturday, Feb. 7, during the team’s 52-33 win over Wesleyan.

Women’s basketball ATEL Hanna Hackley ’18 helped to organize the game, along with Hassell. The team brought A Better Chance Scholars to LeFrak and gave fans the opportunity to get to know the students that their donations would be supporting.

The A Better Chance group has a mission statement that focuses on providing academically talented and highly motivated young men of color with the tools and support systems needed to maximize their opportunities for success. They carry out their mission by funding students to stay in Amherst and at-

tend the local schools. Amherst women’s basketball also spent some time volunteering as tutors for the students.

Thanks to the fundraiser game, the team raised $450 in cash donations that will go towards improvements for the study center located at the A Better Chance house.

Another feature of the semester thus far was an event sponsored by the women’s ice hockey team, and spear headed by ATEL Camille Herzog ’17. Camille and her teammates put on their third annual “Pink in the Rink” game on Sunday, Feb. 1 during their contest against Conn. College.

The funds from the game benefited The Cancer Connection of Northampton. The team chose The Cancer Connection due to its local connection and immediacy. They saw a need for help and envisioned direct ways their contributions could be used.

“Additionally, The Cancer Connection runs off an annual budget of only $300,000, so we know our funds would be well-appreciated and really have a significant impact upon local families undergoing their journey with cancer.,” Herzog said.

The game of course featured a pink theme, with Amherst players wearing special pink jerseys. They also had a representative from The Cancer Connection present to inform fans about the cause and what exactly the organization does.

“As ALs, we stress the importance of high quality community engagement, which meets community needs and fosters lasting relationships,” Hassell said.

This core value is one also supported by Karen Lee Miller and the Center for Community Engagement. Miller serves as the supervisor for the ATEL program.

“She has been integral to the conception and implementation of the program. She’s truly a role model for all of us,” Hassell added.

The Amherst Student will continue to feature the work individual ATEls are doing throughout the semester.

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Quinn Moroney ’16

Yuna Evans ’17

Favorite Team Memory: Running the

Favorite Team Memory: Pump-up

Seven Sisters mountain range to raise

videos

money for charity

Favorite Pro Athlete: Marshawn Lynch

Favorite Pro Athlete: Rabil

Dream Job: I want to own and operate

Dream Job: Provost

my own pizza eating business

Pet Peeve: Anything Lawlor does

Pet Peeve: Leftover pizza

Favorite Vacation Spot: Jackson Hole

Favorite Vacation Spot: Buck Island

Something on Your Bucket List: Ride

Something on Your Bucket List: Hug

an elephant

a puffin

Guilty Pleasure: “Pitch Perfect” sound

Guilty Pleasure: Two- or three-day-old

track

pizza

Favorite Food: Waffles

Favorite Food: Pizza, oh hot to the

Favorite Thing About Amherst: The

touch

weather

Favorite Thing About Amherst: Free

How He Earned It: After impressive

t-shirts (and pizza)

freshman and sophomore seasons, Mo-

How She Earned It: Amherst women’s

roney started off his junior campaign in

hockey earned an impressive overtime

similar fashion. The attack scored three

victory to propel themselves into the

goals in the team’s season opener held

NESCAC semifinals. The win came

this past Saturday at Bates. Moroney’s

largely as result of Evans’ play in net.

first goal of the day was good for Am-

The sophomore turned away 29 shots

herst’s third in the contest, as he scored

en route to the win, good for her 10th

unassisted. He then quickly tacked on

this season. One key save came in the

his second and third, adding back to back

first period, as Evans made a sprawling

scores just three minutes apart. The Jeffs

lunge to her left to block the shot from

eventually went on to win by a score of

Colby’s Breanna Davis and prevent Colby

10-6. Moroney also added an assist on

from gaining momentum early on. Evans

the day, leaving him with four total points

and her teammates will compete in the

from the contest.

NESCAC semifinals this Saturday.

Noah Browne Advances to Quarterfinals in Men’s Squash Individual Nationals Kiana Herold ’17 Managing Sports Editor

Photo courtesy of Virginia Hassell ’16

The 2015-16 ATEL class poses for a group photo during their retreat.

Photo courtesy of Virginia Hassell ’16

Karen Lee Miller, of the CCE, presents to a group of rising ATELs.

Feb. 26 brought with it an All-NESCAC nomination for men’s squash standout Noah Browne ’16, kicking off the week of CSA individual championships with a great start. This was nothing new to Browne, as it was the third consecutive time the junior had earned the accolade. Coming off of a clean sweep in the MCSA national team championships, Browne won all three of his matches against his Middlebury, Colby and Hobart opponents. The junior has competed for the Jeffs at the No. 1 court all season, going 10-4 individually.

At the CSA individual championships, the sole Amherst competitor was ranked No. 54 in an 84 person field. The junior competed in the Molloy Cup (B Division) at Princeton. On Feb. 27th, Browne blasted through his first match again his Haverford opponent Nathan Vestrich-Shade in a swift three sets (11-4, 113, 11-2).

The following day, Browne competed in the Round of 64 against Anders Larson of University of Pennsylvania. He overcame his No. 43-ranked opponent in four sets during the Round of 62 (11-7, 6-11, 11-8, 11-8).

The final day of competition began favorably with Browne winning the match against Kyle Martino of Dartmouth in five sets (10-12,

Photo courtesy of Rob Mattson

Junior Noah Browne went 3-1 this weekend.

11-5, 12-10, 8-11, 11-5). This allowed Browne to advance to the quarterfinals against the Naval Academy’s Andrew McGuinness. After taking the first set against his opponent, Browne lost the next three in some very close sets (9-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-8).

Going 3-1 overall at the 2015 national individual championships, Browne improved on his performance from last year and concluded the season strong.

The Amherst Student • March 4, 2015

Sports

Envisioning March Madness: Kentucky vs.

Virginia Showdown Chris’ Corner Chris Rigas ’16 Columnis College football made its long-awaited switch from a single championship game to a four-team playoff this year, to pretty much universal acclaim. Even the playoff ’s detractors had to admit that it delivered some good football and some great storylines, and the fact that No. 4 seed Ohio State won also vindicated the format. Of course, the format was modeled on March Madness, the giant college basketball tournament. March Madness is, to me and many others, the most fun time of the year in sports. But this year, part of me wants to see a BCS-style championship game, between two teams that have set themselves apart during the regular season: Virginia and Kentucky. (Virginia is actually ranked third in the current coaches’ poll, below Gonzaga, which is ridiculous. Both teams have one loss, but the Cavaliers have beaten ranked teams VCU, Maryland, Notre Dame, North Carolina, and Louisville, while Gonzaga’s best win was over barely-ranked SMU.) For people who like sports to symbolize something bigger than a single game, a Kentucky-Virginia game would be great. Kentucky, led by the sometimes controversial John Calipari, is one of the most talented college basketball teams ever. Virginia, on the other hand, epitomizes consistency and continuity; they win by executing the schemes of coach Tony Bennett very precisely.

Calipari is sometimes demonized for taking advantage of the system — he recruits the best players from high school, who have to attend college for at least one year before they enter the NBA draft, wins titles with them, and then sends them on their way to NBA stardom. Critics think that this is cynical, that it undermines the ideal of the student-athlete, and that it destroys the continuity of the college game, making it essentially a minor league for the NBA. The single best rebuttal to these complaints is that Calipari, at every turn, genuinely seems to have his players’ best interests in mind. The plight of soon-to-be millionaires might not fill a lot of people with sympathy, but the fact is that a lot of people — AAU coaches, professional agents, and so on — try to take advantage of star high school and college basketball players.

The student-athlete complaints are somewhat fair; it’s unlikely that Calipari’s players are taking advantage of their chance to get a pretty good education. But, it isn’t as though Calipari’s players, or even one-and-done players in general, are unique in this; it’s become clear, through various scandals and anecdotes, that many Division I athletes coast through college without doing much serious academic work.

(For example, according to Slate, “academically troubled UNC athletes were encouraged to sign up for so-called ‘paper classes’ — which were essentially no-work independent studies involving a single paper that allowed functionally illiterate football players to prop up their GPAs.”) Moreover, the demand that college players take advantage of their education is less altruistic than it appears. The idea that athletes are getting an education in college — and therefore getting something of value — justifies the NCAA system, in which universities make millions of dollars from the athletic exploits of students, who get no monetary compensation. The fact that many of these athletes are not prepared for and therefore not capable of the work required of them is not necessarily an indictment of them or their coaches. It merely reveals the hypocrisy of a system: the NCAA offers a benefit — education — which certain athletes are in no position to take advantage of, leaving them working essentially for free.

For big-time NBA prospects, basketball represents an extraordinary opportunity to get financial security for the rest of their lives. Any

damage done to that opportunity is naturally incredible costly for the player. Some college coaches are hesitant to play freshmen, or to let freshmen take a high share of the offense. That type of hesitancy can damage a player’s draft stock and cost him millions of dollars. Calipari recently told CBS Sports, “The 40-year old model of the program — it’s about the program, it’s about the system, no names on the back of the jerseys — we’ve flipped it. Now it’s about the player. It’s about his development.”

This is the type of quote that Calipari’s critics use to paint Kentucky as a sort of advanced AAU team that plays selfish, one-on-one basketball. But the truth is, the Wildcats share the ball and play incredibly hard on defense.

When Calipari says he doesn’t have a system, he doesn’t mean that Kentucky doesn’t run plays, or that they have no defensive philosophy, he just means that those plays change year-to-year, based on what type of players are on the team.

Calipari doesn’t try to guilt his players into staying at Kentucky when they have to chance to be drafted high in the first round of the NBA draft.

Ultimately, Calipari’s claim is that high school players who are potential NBA prospects have a better chance of reaching that potential if they play for him. And players obviously believe him, because the best ones continue to decide to play at Kentucky.

Given his genuine concern for his players, I have trouble casting Calipari as a villain. Still, I tend to gravitate toward teams with more underdog appeal in my rooting interests; it isn’t natural to root for a collection of the most talented players who have banded together to beat the less talented players, regardless of the talented players’ understandable motivations.

Virginia coach Tony Bennett has built his team with relatively unheralded players: only breakout star Justin Anderson is expected to be picked at all in the NBA draft. The Cavaliers start three juniors, a senior and a sophomore.

Last year, Virginia surprised everyone by winning the ACC tournament and posting a 30-7 record on the way to a Sweet Sixteen berth. They picked up where they left off last year, sprinting to a 24-1 mark. The Cavaliers win by executing better and making fewer mistakes than their opponents. As Grantland’s Mark Titus wrote, “They’re what you’d get if a basketball instructional manual from 1980 came to life. They’re the German national soccer team of college basketball.”

The differences in the teams are clear at the offensive end. The Cavaliers rely on precise execution, and again, make very few mistakes, turning the ball over less than all but two teams in the NCAA. Kentucky is far from undisciplined offensively, but sometimes things break down due to their inexperience. Fortunately, at that point, the all-world talent takes over.

Whatever their differences, Kentucky and Virginia have one, important similarity: the historically suffocating defense they play. The teams are ranked first and second in a host of important defensive categories, including points allowed per game, points allowed per possession and opponent field goal percentage. Virginia employs the pack line defensive scheme, a system developed by Bennett’s father, who coached at Washington State. The pack line system has the defenders off the ball sag a bit off their men, to be in better help position. This leads to fewer steals, but very few easy baskets for their opponents. Unsurprisingly, the Cavaliers are welldisciplined on defense; they’ve committed the third fewest fouls in the country. Kentucky, as you might imagine with their elite athleticism, is more aggressive: they are second in blocks per game and in the top fourth of the NCAA in steals per game.

11

Men’s Track Wins DMR for National Record, Women Perform Well Drew Kiley ’18 Staff Writer Men The Amherst College men’s indoor track and field distance medley relay team set a NCAA Div. III record with a time of 9:48.61 at the 2015 NEICAAA indoor track and field championships hosted by Boston University last Friday, Feb. 27 and Saturday, Feb. 28.

In addition to the distance medley relay victory, the Jeffs recorded four other top-10 finishes. Senior Greg Turissini led the way with a mark of 8:23.86 en route to second place in the 3,000-meter run. First-year Mohamed Hussein also claimed a second-place finish in the 5,000 meters, running a time of 14:29.11, while teammate Raymond Meijer ’17 crossed the line in 14:59.39 to finish in ninthplace.

The Jeffs’ 4x800-meter relay team of Romey Sklar ’15, Kevin Connors ’17, Chris Butko ’18 and Brent Harrison ’16 ran a time of 7:44.92 to claim an eighth-place finish.

Amherst’s distance medley relay team of Sklar, David Ingraham ’18, Harrison and Turissini had entered the meet simply looking to qualify for nationals.

“Coach Ned had mentioned the national record to Greg [Turissini], but I didn’t think

Saturday. The Jeffs scored 11 points, finishing 19th in a field of 38 teams from Divs. I, II and III. Lexi Sinclair ’16 and Savanna Gornisiewicz ’17 led the Jeffs with top-five finishes in the distance events. Sinclair, competing in the 3,000-meter run, crossed the line in 9:49.98 to claim fourth place, while Gornisiewicz ran the 5,000 meters in a time of 17:15.44 to finish in fourth place as well.

The team also claimed two top-10 finishes in Friday’s preliminaries. Kelli Ellingson ’15 ran the 1,000 meters in a time of 2:58.71 to

Photo courtesy of Peter Connolly ‘18

Briskin and Gornisiewicz continue to race well in long distance.

Photo courtesy of Mark Box

Greg Turissini anchored the last leg of the record-winning DMR. it was a possibility and was hoping for about a 9:52,” Harrison said.

The race featured an incredibly competitive field in which four squads posted times below 9:52. Turissini, the last Jeffs runner to receive the baton, edged Northeastern’s anchor by only two tenths of a second to claim the national record.

The field pushed Amherst throughout. The drama at the end, as Turissini put it, “certainly made for a great photo.” The Jeffs emphatically surpassed the high expectations with which they entered the meet, putting the distance medley relay team in focus for the rest of the season as the purple and white look to add more championships to this record-setting performance.

Amherst returns to the track this Friday and Saturday for the ECAC championships at the Armory Track & Field Center in New York City.

Women The Amherst College women’s indoor track and field team competed at the 2015 NEICAAA indoor track and field championships hosted by Boston University last Friday and

Photo courtesy of Peter Connolly ‘18

Always ready to compete, captain Olivia Tarantino runs a relay. finish in ninth place, while Karen Blake ’17 posted a mark of 25.33 seconds in the 200-meter dash to claim tenth place.

In the high jump, Kiana Herold ’17 claimed eighth place with a leap of 1.65 meters.

“We had a really great meet last weekend.

Nearly everyone on the team matched or beat their personal records,” Gornisiewicz said.

“I think we are set up really well for [ECAC championships] next weekend and excited to wrap up the end of a great season.”

The purple and white return to action this Friday and Saturday for the two-day ECAC Championships at the Armory Track & Field Center in New York City.

Sports

Photo courtesy of Rob Mattson

First-year forward Brenna Sullivan impresses her first season with 11 goals and 6 assists, as she continues to contribute to her team’s success.

Women’s Hockey Survives Overtime Thriller, Advances to NESCAC Semis Nell Patterson ’15 Senior Staff Writer The Amherst women’s hockey team had a nail-biter of a game this Saturday in the NESCAC quarterfinal against Colby. The second-seeded Jeffs defeated the seventh-seeded Mules 2-1, in overtime. The win was crucial for the Jeffs, and they will move on in the highly competitive NESCAC tournament having obtained redemption for last year’s loss to Colby in the quarterfinals.

“In the NESCAC, the teams are all extremely competitive,” said Erin Martin ’16.

“Anyone can win any day. The one and eight seed went into four OT’s. We play in the most competitive league in all of Div. III.” The Jeffs and Mules played during the regular season this year in a doubleheader weekend at Colby over interterm. The Jeffs won both games. This weekend’s win also helped Amherst move up in the national rankings.

The Jeffs are now seventh in the country according to D3hockey.com and eighth according to the USCHO.com poll.

The first period provided lots of action but little scoring on either end. Amherst held an edge in shots with 12, but Colby goalie Jessica Thulin was once again strong in front of the net with 12 saves. The Mules had 10 shots in the first period, but Yuna Evans ’17 kept the score 0-0.

Early in the second period, the Jeffs and

Mules both played a man down due to penalties, but neither team was able to capitalize. Colby held the advantage in shots this period with 10. The Jeffs’ offense picked up in the third stanza, racking up an impressive shot advantage 14-5 over the Mules. However, Colby struck first in the third period with Megan Fortier finding an opening in a crowded scramble around the net.

The Jeffs put on the pressure, and at the 7:39 mark Emily Flom ’15 found the back of the net to tie the score. Caitlyn Ryan ’17 and Martin were credited with the assists. With plenty of time left to play, the Jeffs continued to challenge Thulin in goal. The Mules’ defense was able to keep the score tied, and the battle continued in overtime.

Anne Gillard ’15 had a great opportunity in the opening minute of the overtime period.

She skated down the ice and put a shot on Thulin, which bounced off the pads into the center of the ice. The Mule defense was able to clear the puck before any Jeffs could capitalize.

Halfway through the 20-minute overtime, the Jeffs found themselves on a power play.

The puck traveled around the Colby goal, but none of the shots fired could squeeze past the talented Thulin. As the power play expired, Eileen Harris ’16 slipped the ball to the team’s leading scorer, senior captain Tori Salmon.

Salmon shot the ball and scored the game winner, her 16th goal of the season.

“There is a big sense of relief in the locker

room being able to move past the quarterfinals this year,” Martin said. “Colby has a great team, and I am just happy we could pull it out this year.”

The win secured the Jeffs a spot in the NESCAC semifinals, which will be hosted by topseeded Middlebury this weekend. The Jeffs will have to get by third-seeded Trinity first in order to punch their ticket to the NESCAC final. Earlier this season, the Jeffs tied and lost

Photo courtesy of Rob Mattson

WEDS THURS FRI GAME SCHE DULE

Men’s Indoor Track and Field Men’s Indoor Track @ ECAC Championships, and Field All Day @ Tufts Last Chance Women’s Indoor Women’s Lacrosse Meet, TBA Track and Field @ Babson, 6:15 p.m. @ ECAC Championships, All Day Men’s Lacrosse vs. Western New England, 5 p.m.

away games at Trinity’s home rink. Playing in neutral territory this time, the Jeffs are looking to come out on top or face going home for good.

“I am most excited to play in another close game,” Martin said. “Playoff hockey brings a new intensity to the game, and I know our team is ready to play our best.”

The semifinal contest begins this Saturday, Feb. 6 at 4 p.m. in Middlebury, Vermont.

SAT Women’s Basketball vs. Eastern, @ NYU, 5 p.m.

Men’s Indoor Track Men’s Hockey and Field @ ECAC Championships, Women’s Lacrosse vs. Tufts (NESCAC Semifi@ Bowdoin, 12 p.m. nal), 4 p.m.

10 a.m.

Women’s Indoor Men’s Basketball Men’s Lacrosse vs. Sage Colleges, @ St. Track and Field vs. Bowdoin, 1 p.m. @ ECAC Championships, John Fisher, 5:30 p.m.

TBA

Women’s Hockey @ Middlebury (NESCAC Semifinal), 4 p.m.