When I applied to join the Social Project Work Group as one of six at-large members appointed by the AAS senate, I was adamant about my antagonistic role. Social clubs, as they had been proposed, would have to be defeated. If not, they would need to be fundamentally transformed. Unfortunately, they have not been. So, today I write to encourage you to vote “no” to social clubs on Thursday. The work group did not resolve the significant problems posed in the open letter 28 students signed last November.
Amherst is often called apolitical. Unlike our counterparts at Wesleyan, Middlebury or Swarthmore, Amherst students are seen as far too busy with academics to engage with the world outside the Pioneer Valley. Our heads are in the clouds discussing Socrates in our “Friendship” seminar while students across the country collectively organize to fight against oppressive power structures and modern-day challenges to liberal ideals of equality.
We want to clarify a misconception that some readers may have had after reading the letter by Amherst Hillel’s Executive Board in last week’s edition of The Student. That letter did not distinguish between the students who staged the die-in at the Israeli Independence Day Party and those who tore down Hillel’s posters. On that Saturday night, after many of us staged the die-in, we made posters condemning the actions of the Israeli state in the Keefe Campus Center. Four students hung the posters in Valentine between 1 a.m. and 1:30 a.m., surrounding the posters advertising the party.
David Brooks recently wrote an article for the New York Times called “The Moral Bucket List.” In it, he describes coming across people who “see life as a moral drama and feel fulfilled only when they are enmeshed in a struggle on behalf of some ideal.” He concludes, “those are the people we want to be.” But how do we do this? As Amherst students, we are always trying to push the envelope of experience, but we often forget to make time to find our passions and our voice.
It is common knowledge that Amherst College is plagued by a plethora of social issues. From loneliness to an acute lack of a sense of community, the problems that affect our campus may be small or great depending on who you ask. In the past year many a dining table conversation has been dedicated to the dreaded topics of loneliness and inclusiveness. Ideas like reviving fraternities or creating social clubs have even been brought up, but all to no avail, it seems. So here we are, lonely.
Do you remember how the campus felt during the first few weeks of last year? In the aftermath of the trustees’ decision on fraternities, the contentious presidential elections and in the midst of all that tension with Amherst’s administrators? It made me think senior year was going to be an absolute crawl, through two semesters of perpetual angst with a collapse — no, an escape — at graduation. I was wrong. I was wrong not because of some sudden turnaround of the decision on fraternities, a somehow remodeled senate or a radical new administrative attitude.
In a recently released video by the Social Project Work Group, “Jess,” a fictional first-year student having trouble finding her place at Amherst, finds a diverse group of friends in the “Coolidge Club.” Social clubs have generally been presented as a panacea for students facing the challenge of finding themselves and their place at college. The promise of instantaneous friends and an inclusive environment without the classic “fraternity problems” seems too good to be true. That’s because it is. In fact, social clubs have the potential to further divide an already fractured community.
