Let me put this question to you, Amherst: did you come to the College to buy an education or to collectively build one? I believe that this captures much of what is wrong at Amherst, of the disease that is driving the tension between the administration, Board of Trustees and students. This disease, this misunderstanding of what it is that we are fundamentally doing at the college, is pulling us further down year by year.
“The food is edible.”
“I just think it’s a step-up from my high school cafeteria, but it’s definitely a step-down from household food.”
“It’s satisfactory.”
These were the responses I received from students when asked what their views were of the food at Valentine Hall. They may seem reasonable to many, but not to me: I think the food is phenomenal! Now, before you laugh or disregard my hyperbole — as it is to some — let me discourse my reasons for this opinion:
With the frustrated efforts of the infamous 2013 “dry orientation” not far in the rear view window, this fall, all eyes were on Provost Uvin’s reforms. Last semester, controversy abounded over the removal of Queer Queries, the insertion of poorly defined academic TEDx presentations and reports of new, required three-day trips. The issue that remained constantly at the center of the conversation was the status of varsity athletes or our “scholar-athletes.”
Hi! Welcome back to Amherst on behalf of the Association of Amherst Students (AAS)! A special welcome to the class of 2018 and incoming transfer students. The entire campus community has been working long and hard to help you make a home here at Amherst College. So, welcome home everyone, new and old!
1. Intellectual quality
2. The curiously long lines for fried dough at festivals
3. Financial aid
4. Trick or treating and hayrides
5. The view from Memorial Hill
6. Book and Plow Farm
7. The physics jacket
8. Student publications
9. The devotion of our alumni
10. Faculty engagement with students
11. Students who come to my office hours
12. The feats of our student athletes
13. Student clubs and performers (Gad's)
14. Orchestra, jazz, a capella, choral, dance and thesis performances
AAS: The Association of Amherst Students; specializing in election scandals, infighting, obscure bylaws and referendums.
A capella: The best way to kill many, many hours with your parents during Parents’ Weekend.
AC Voice: Polemical online-only publication; favorite topics include bathrooms, Keefe Campus Center, privilege.
AmCo: Abbreviation of Amherst Coffee, home to English and philosophy majors. [q.v. David Foster Wallace ’84]
We know, we know. Orientation week is long and filled with more information than you’ll ever need to know.
But as the independent student newspaper of the college (since 1868), we are obligated to provide you, class of 2018 — and transfer students, who get way less love than they deserve — with some tricks to the Amherst trade. For both our sanity and yours, we’ve tried to keep these modules of wisdom as practical and far from banal Buzzfeed-esque listicles about College, Trying New Things and Following Your Dreams as possible.
