It’s already been heard that the debate surrounding Lord Jeff has injured many on campus — a phenomenon not unsurprising given the harshness of the rhetoric and the complete disregard for logical argument. The debate is leading students to accuse each other of ignorance and arrogance, hate and immaturity.
Starting next week, Valentine Dining Hall will no longer close its front doors at 7:30 p.m. Backed by popular demand, the staff will keep a limited selection of foods available to students. Students can head over to Valentine for sandwiches, salads, cereals, drinks, paninis and waffles up until until 8:30 p.m. Students can forget about desperate 7:30 dashes to Val, sliding under half-closed gates and 8:00 p.m. hounding for dirty plates; instead, we can look forward to relaxed after-meal hangouts, coffees and snacks.
Does anyone know what is going on with Keefe? Outside of a stunning neon green and orange color scheme that shines off the walls, most of the renovation of the Student Center remains a mystery to students. A single email sent by the President in late December lists the renovations, but since then we have seen no floor plan nor a reaffirmation of the original sketch laid down.
A week of Thanksgiving break comes as welcome respite in the middle of a very busy and heavy time on campus. For some students, Thanksgiving isn’t a time of family reunion but a time for students to catch much needed rest and reorient themselves for the upcoming final push for work — it’s a short period of celebration with their other friends who remain on campus wedged between a time of incredible stress.
It was the Sunday night before class, and confusion reigned supreme on campus. With Hurricane Sandy set to make landfall in several hours, students stayed up late waiting for information about classes the next day. Confused Facebook messages flew back and forth. Some students announced defeat in the waiting game and decided they were just going to skip class for their own safety in spite of forthcoming news.
These past few days have been the moment of student journalism and expression at Amherst. Students published their accounts and expressed their points in various publications and columns. From The Student, The Indicator, AC Voice and student blogs of all kinds, the voice of students rang out for calls to action — and action came to campus in force. After Angie Epifano’s account (“An Account of Sexual Assault at Amherst College”) went viral, President Martin reached out to the Amherst community within less than 24 hours of our publication.
The news of former professor Carleen Basler’s academic plagiarism came as a shock to the entire College community, with several students and faculty expressing intense dismay at the revelations about someone who is revered an idol, mentor and friend. While we at The Student do not wish to opine on the particularities of Basler’s case, we do wish to use this incident to highlight an important problem that not only plagues members of the College’s own academic community, but also elite institutions across the map: the lack of adequate support networks for the high pressures of academia.
