What is your favorite sitting position in the classroom?
A. Legs spread, hand slung over the chair next to you, lazily twisting up your wrist instead of raising your hand to respond to a question.
B. Slightly in front of everyone else, even when the class is arranged in a semicircle/round table/other ostensibly egalitarian form.
C. Just sit somewhere, I guess.
The vote in mid-December by the American Studies Association to approve the academic and cultural boycott of Israel (as part of a larger call from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement — a movement of more than a hundred Palestinian civil society organizations that includes doctors, lawyers and teachers) unleashed a furious and punitive backlash. The resolution was years in the making, the result of open forums and a membership-wide vote. The boycott does not target individuals, only institutions. Israeli scholars of all political persuasions may visit, lecture and publish.
Jim Larimore stepped down from his position as Dean of Students in an unexpected move announced Monday evening.
Although no new Dean of Students has been named, former Athletic Director Suzanne Coffey has assumed the position of Chief Student Affairs Officer, taking on many of Larimore’s previous responsibilities. Larimore will remain at Amherst as an advisor to President Biddy Martin until the end of the academic year. Don Faulstick, formerly the associate athletics director, has assumed the job of Interim Athletic Director.
Catherine Epstein, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of History, will become the College’s next Dean of the Faculty on July 1. President Biddy Martin announced Epstein’s appointment in an e-mail to the campus community dated Jan. 27.
Epstein will replace Gregory R. Call, the Peter R. Pouncey Professor of Mathematics, who has decided to return to teaching full-time after an eleven-year term as Dean of the Faculty. President Martin announced Dean Call’s decision to step down in an e-mail in October.
Born in Chattanooga, Tenn., Ball’s fascination with Chemistry started in his early days and followed him from Macalester College, where he received his BA in Chemistry, to Univ. of Michigan - Ann Arbor (Masters, Ph.D.), and the California Institute of Technology, where he was a Postdoctoral Scholar.
Amherst Fire Department (AFD) arrived on scene late Monday night in response to to a pulled fire alarm within Valentine Dining Hall after three students noticed smoke coming from within the dining area. While cutting through the Dining Hall on their way back from a mock trial meeting, juniors Dan Kang and Joy Huang and sophomore Sirvet Bayimli immediately smelled smoke and quickly called Amherst Campus Police.
On Saturday, Feb. 1 at around 1:30 p.m., a body was found on Smith College’s campus. The man was identified the next day as Kyle William Amidon, 35, of Florence. An official statement from the college said that the body was found by a student near the Japanese tea hut, and that he has no official affiliation with the college.
