A few days ago, I had the honor of joining President Biddy Martin and 17 fellow students for dinner. We discussed, among other things, what we liked and disliked about Amherst College. Some students expressed dissatisfaction with the advising process, saying that they almost never met with their advisors. Some students said they were unhappy about the athlete/non-athlete divide. Some felt that it was difficult to make new friends after First-Year Orientation ended.
Last Thursday evening, the former mayor of Ciudad Juarez talked to a group of Amherst students about one of the innumerable gunfights that have terrorized northern Mexico and claimed 50,000 lives. Rival drug gangs shot at each other with guns so powerful that a single bullet could punch through an armored Suburban, and then exit cleanly through the other side. The U.S. government refused to weapons to the Mexican army; the drug gangs, on the other hand, drove across the border and purchased them from U.S.
I withdrew from the AAS Presidential Race after receiving information which I did not solicit and which I did not attempt to use. If I were a good politician, I would tell you that I resigned so that I could cooperate fully with the Judiciary Council investigation — but I am not a particularly good politician. I resigned from the race because I am frustrated with the tone of our discourse and disappointed in the character of our governance.
Our meeting this week involved the work of several senators’ individual projects. Benyam Ashenafi ’15 is currently working on getting hammocks and picnic tables for the freshman quad and other similar areas around campus. Benyam explained that Dean Fatemi and the administration were not in favor of hammocks because they felt hammocks clashed with the overall appearance of the campus. However, Benyam did point out that the Student Activities Office would be willing to fund twelve picnic tables. In our meeting, we discussed whether or not the Senate should fund more tables for the quad.
Last week saw intense drama regarding a possible scandal in the AAS E-Board elections; the details of the incident, now notorious amongst the student body, do not need to be repeated here. While The Student would like to refrain from commenting directly on the incident until the Judicial Council releases its official verdict due this Thursday, we would like to talk about a related topic that students raised both in reference to our recent article and in the past: accusations that The Student is biased, sensationalist or lacking journalistic integrity.
I’m slightly obsessed with elections, so I found out about the election complaint when I checked to see if the results were up at midnight Saturday morning (it displayed a short message entitled “Election Complaint”). Unlike the candidates at issue, however, I wasn’t able to secure any of the then-classified information on the subject, instead finding out the details in the early-released article in The Student.
To the numerous students (and one gorilla) who joined us this past Monday: thanks! It was an eventful Senate meeting to say the least and we always love having students who are interested in campus issues.
