Raymond Meijer
The faculty discussed changes to the academic calendar, accreditation for Five College certification programs and archival of theses at the first faculty meeting of the calendar year on Feb. 17.
A student club recently received funding from the President’s Office to construct a self-sustaining, soil-free greenhouse by Valentine Dining Hall. The club, Hooked on Aquaponics, is co-founded by Pete Suechting ‘15, Jim Hall ’15 and Thais Correia ‘16.
Aquaponics is a combination of aquaculture, which is the farming of aquatic animals, with hydroponics, a technique for growing plants without soil. The fundamental process behind aquaponics farming lies in repurposing fish waste into plant food.
The college’s orientation committee is currently working on a new orientation schedule for fall 2015 and hopes to shorten Amherst’s nine-day orientation by two days. The committee, made up of 11 students and administrators, has devised a new mission statement for orientation in order to further clarify the week’s purpose.
Two teams and one judge from Amherst’s debate team attended the 35th World Universities Debating Championships over interterm. Seniors David Walchak, Jeremy Rubel, Edgar Casildo, Timothy Yuan and Mary Byrne participated in the championships, which took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Nearly 400 debate teams from around the world competed at the event.
The college’s Robert Frost Library has been awarded the 2015 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award. A division of the American Library Association, the Association of College & Research Libraries, gives awards each year to university, college and community college libraries that it regards to be “outstanding in furthering the education missions of their institutions.” This year, Amherst College’s library, along with those of Purdue University and Santa Fe College, was granted the award.
Associate Professor of Mathematics Amanda Folsom is originally from Boston. She received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Chicago and went on to obtain her master’s degree and doctorate at the University of California, Los Angeles. Folsom specializes in number theory, particularly in modular forms and mock modular forms.
