Academics are a big deal at Amherst. The school does everything in its power to make sure the academic calendar suits faculty needs so that they can squeeze in every single reading, lecture and essay they see fit to assign. Last semester, a student wrote an opinion article in this very newspaper testifying to how the administration’s high and potentially unhealthy emphasis on schoolwork left other parts of our lives — intellectual, social, emotional — unsatisfied.
Many of us pursue greatness — or at the very least, happiness — and we feel that getting a higher education will aid us in this goal. However, lately I have been feeling that the deluge of homework and essays we get every week is suppressing the potential innovation many of us are capable of. We seem to be pursuing grades rather than an education, for there seems to be no time to educate ourselves properly; time has become our enemy.
Isa Goldberg makes a case for why Amherst students should support the movement for the college to divest from coal. An excerpt of this article appeared in the December 3, 2014 print issue of The Amherst Student.
Is divestment the most appropriate vehicle in the campaign to limit fossil fuels?
Last semester, shortly before the spring finals period, the Amherst College board of trustees made national headlines with an announcement that would drastically affect student life. Reaffirming the “spirit and intention” of their original 1984 decision, the board officially banned students’ membership, either on or off campus, of “any fraternity, sorority or other social club, society or organization” (emphasis added).
This month, the Queer Resource Center, as well as a number of other resource centers and student groups on campus, have been working diligently to bring some of the initiatives of Hampshire County Trans Awareness Month to Amherst College. Through a variety of events, such as film screenings and dialogues, Trans Awareness Month seeks to direct attention to the lived experiences of trans and gender non-conforming people. A comprehensive awareness of marginalization in our community must include an appreciation of their unique experiences.
Like so many Amherst students, I am all too familiar with 4 a.m. The kind of 4 a.m. where you’re hunched over a desk, accompanied only by your notes and a mug of lukewarm coffee. You’ve stared at a computer so long you can’t tell what the words you wrote just a few hours ago even mean. You’ve refreshed Facebook for the 80th time. I’ve been at Amherst for three months, and I’ve already had my share of those nights. Upperclassmen assure me it gets worse.
Dear President Martin, Chief Student Affairs Officer Coffey, Dean of Students Vasquez and members of the administration:
