Over the past few weeks there has been a great amount of discussion about establishing social groups on campus. There are some students who have become immediately drawn to this idea and others who are opposed, but almost everyone has been eager to learn more and offer feedback. What are social groups? What issues will they address? How will they do so?
Since the release of their eponymous debut under RCA records in 2012, Walk the Moon has been on the radar of fans of indie pop and dance-rock alike. The band has enjoyed a considerable amount of success so far with both their independently-released album “I Want! I Want!” and the self-titled “Walk The Moon.” Their newest album, “Talking is Hard,” has proved no different In fact, the album is only two spots below One Direction’s newest effort on the iTunes chart right now, despite the fact that the band released it a week earlier than originally planned.
James Marsh’s “The Theory of Everything” is part love story and part biopic, but sadly doesn’t highlight enough of either. Having bawled at the trailer twice, I went into this movie with high hopes, but felt like I was being led too quickly through a man’s life, peering into each formative chapter and craning my neck to see more before being jerked on to the next. However, brilliant acting on the part of Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking and Felicity Jones as Jane Wilde, as well as Marsh’s sleek direction, make up for the film’s often scattered, surface-level aspects.
The AAS constitution needs a comprehensive non-discrimination clause. Sign the petition to ensure that illicit discrimination has no place at Amherst College.
Darrian Kelly no longer has any affiliation with the Amherst College chapter of To Write Love On Her Arms.
People struggle with many things in silence. Depression, anxiety, addiction and trauma are a common few. While many students ache for genuine connections within their college community, their isolation with these unvoiced realities often leaves them unable to gain a true stable sense of belonging. Community is often where healing happens. For those struggling, community allows them to know that they are not alone.
It’s hard not to feel empowered and inspired by Amherst students lately. Last Monday, somewhere between 250 and 500 students met on the steps of Frost to remember Michael Brown’s death with a moment of silence and a walk around the quad chanting “hands up, don’t shoot.” On Sunday, anyone on or around the first-year quad could see the group of UMass and Amherst protesters who walked through the town to raise awareness about the injustice of the non-indictment in the Eric Garner case.
Both within the “Amherst bubble” and beyond, loneliness has become a taboo word. No one wants to talk about it, let alone admit that they themselves are — gasp! — lonely. But silence only breeds ignorance, and ignorance gives rise to misinformation, fear and exaggeration. Claims that we’re now suffering from “unprecedented alienation” and that as time passes, we have “less and less society” — from a viral 2012 story in The Atlantic that spawned both outraged criticism and enthusiastic consensus — abound. So do links between loneliness and premature death, arthritis and heart disease.
