The Office of Diversity and Inclusion announced in a community-wide email on Tuesday, Sept. 26 that the college converted all existing single-user facilities into gender-inclusive restrooms over the summer. Part of an initiative to install and increase access to gender-inclusive restrooms on campus, the project is anticipated to be completed by the end of fall semester.
According to the email, the new changes came out of plans to “build a safer and more inclusive campus environment for our transgender, nonbinary and gender non-conforming community members.”
Students held a forum on disability and inclusion on Friday, Sept. 22 to discuss issues of accessibility on campus. Organized by Matt Walsh ’19 and Annika Ariel ’19, the forum was an open space for conversation on topics ranging from misperceptions of disability to steps the administration could take to better address inclusion.
When Claire Cho ’20 received her financial aid package in early July, she was shocked — her expected family contribution had doubled “without any indication that it would,” she said.
After conversing with friends and peers, she realized that a number of students’ expected family contributions had changed dramatically since their first year.
“People who were really close with me, we were really unhappy with the way Financial Aid was handling it,” she said.
“It didn’t seem like just one or two people,” Cho added. “It seemed much more of a trend.”
Julia Turner ’19 first met Lauren Tuiskula when Turner visited Amherst on a softball recruitment trip as a high school sophomore.
“I remember being intimidated by all of the players,” Turner said, “except Lauren.” Tuiskula put Turner at ease with a “full smile on her face.”
Zahera Harb, a senior lecturer of international journalism at City, University of London, gave a talk titled “Reporting Muslims and Arabs in Anglo-American Media” on Monday, April 17.
Harb worked for Lebanese and international media organizations and was a producer and news anchor of a number of Lebanese broadcast programs before becoming a review editor for the Journal of Media Practice. She has also worked on several political and social documentaries and reported for BBC Arabic and CNN World Report.
After a controversial election process that included Judiciary Council (JC) complaints and a runoff election, the Amherst Association of Students (AAS) announced on Wednesday morning, April 12 that the student body elected Aditi Krishnamurthy ’18 as AAS president for the upcoming year. Krishnamurthy received only two more votes than did fellow candidate Phillip Yan ’18.
"Decolonize Val," a student-led sit-in aiming to break down what organizers called the “toxic culture” of the back room in Valentine Dining Hall, took place during the evenings last week from March 27-31.
