The Amherst College Belonging Committee released the Strategic Plan to Increase Belonging that will be shared with the Amherst community on Wednesday Feb. 28. The plan was shared with Student Affairs, the Senior Leadership team, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Presidential Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion earlier this month to obtain feedback.
Crystal Sanders, an associate professor of African-American studies and history at Penn State University, spoke in Paino Lecture Hall on Feb. 21 about the Mississippi Head Start program in 1965 and its effects on the black community. The lecture was the fourth in the Amherst College Education Studies Initiative’s interdisciplinary series.
The college has been awarded a $500,000 Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) Program grant. The grant was gifted to the college by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and will help fund an initiative to help underrepresented groups pursue graduate studies in the humanities.
For the first time, students with housing accommodations will be able to enter Early Room Draw, an effort by the Office of Residential Life and the Office of Accessibility Services to allow students with accommodations enter Room Draw with friends, an option that was not previously available. The update was announced in an email on Feb. 14 from Director of Accessibility Services Jodi Foley to students previously using housing accommodations.
The college hosted a conversation between Marine Corps veteran and investigative reporter Thomas Brennan and Boston Globe reporter Kevin Cullen on Feb. 15 in Stirn Auditorium.
Dean of Faculty Catherine Epstein, host of the event, introduced Brennan and Cullen.
Michael Cohen is an assistant professor of psychology. He holds a B.A. from Tufts University and a Ph.D from Harvard University.
The Association of Amherst Students (AAS) held a town hall with administrators and students on Monday, Feb. 12 to address the Party Policy changes released on Jan. 26 and subsequent student backlash. The town hall took place in the Red Room in Converse Hall and was seated to capacity, with students crowding onto the stairs and standing in the back.
