Amherst will install gender-inclusive signs for single-occupancy bathrooms across campus, College Council and Facilities reported last week. The council, chaired by Professor of Religion Maria Heim, voted unanimously to approve new signs proposed by students.
The student initiative for new signage began at a Queer Resource Center meeting in January. Queer Resource Center director Angie Tissi, Saren Deardorff ’17 and Johnathan Appel ’16 introduced the idea to the meeting, where people were discussing gender inclusivity at the college.
President Biddy Martin announced April 7 that David Hamilton has been appointed Amherst’s new chief information officer. Hamilton served as Amherst’s director of web services beginning in 2006, as interim co-director of information technology after 2010 and as interim chief information officer since the fall of 2014.
Amherst College has been chosen to host an exhibition of Shakespeare’s First Folio in April 2016. The First Folio is a document that contains some of the earliest transcriptions of many of Shakespeare’s best known plays, including “Julius Caesar,” “Twelfth Night” and “Macbeth.” The original Folios were written down by actors who had worked alongside Shakespeare. The First Folio is still widely used today on stage, as many consider it to be the closest to Shakespeare’s original stage instructions.
Don Faulstick has been appointed the college’s next athletic director, President Biddy Martin announced last week. The decision follows an extensive selection process by a search committee headed by Psychology Professor Catherine Sanderson.
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.
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.
Faculty and staff met in the Cole Assembly Room of Converse Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 18, for the final faculty meeting of the semester.
Professor Adam Honig, on behalf of the Committee on Educational Policy, discussed the issue of overlapping class schedules between the 12:00 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. time frames on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. A motion to remove the 12:30 p.m. class block passed.
