May 28, 2010

David Foster Wallace '85 thesis to be published

Columbia University Press will publish the Amherst thesis of David Foster Wallace ‘85 next year:

In January 2011, Columbia University Press will publish an adaptation of the undergraduate philosophy thesis David Foster Wallace wrote while he was a student at Amherst. Originally titled “Richard Taylor’s ‘Fatalism’ and the Semantics of Physical Modality,” it will be printed under the more accessible name Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will.

Brian Meacham '97 | 12:24 AM | Alumni | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 12, 2010

Spratlan's opera finally debuts

Professor Emeritus of Music Lewis Spratlan won a Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for his opera, Life is a Dream, which at the time had only been performed in part: earlier that year, Spratlan had raised money to have the second of its three acts played as a “concert performance” (that is, without costumes) at Amherst and at Harvard.

According to Sunday’s New York Times, Life is a Dream will finally be staged in full, with costumes, by the Santa Fe Opera this summer.

Mr. Spratlan concedes that not all audiences will take to “Life Is a Dream,” a rich, complex score that is often dissonant and thorny. Its style was more in vogue in the 1970s; since then much contemporary opera has been written more accessibly, i.e., tunefully.

Spratlan started work on the opera in 1975, on a commission from an opera company which folded before the work was completed (and before paying Spratlan). The 2000 Amherst performance came in response to a visiting colleague asking Spratlan, “How can you live without hearing it?”

Parker Morse '96 | 06:12 AM | Faculty | Comments (0)

March 21, 2010

Women's Hockey: Back to Back National Champions; Women's Basketball: Third Place

Just a short note to highlight a wonderful weekend for Amherst athletics.

The women’s hockey team captured its second consecutive national title with a convincing 7-2 victory over Norwich.

The women’s basketball team completed its most successful season ever by defeating the University of Rochester in the national third-place game. The Jeffs bounced right back after losing in overtime to eventual winners Washington University (St. Louis) in the semifinal the night before. The Jeffs finished at 32-1 for the season.

Congrats to all! If any correspondents wish to leave a report, we would love to hear from you in the comments section!

Dave Nardolillo '98 | 04:30 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 05, 2010

Ted Cross '46, activist, publisher, birder

Theodore Cross ‘46, a civil rights activist and bird enthusiast who was also a successful businessman and publisher, died this past weekend at the age of 86. The New York Times published a detailed obituary in its March 3 edition.

After serving as a naval officer in the Pacific in World War II, he received a bachelor’s degree in English from Amherst College in 1946. In 1950, he earned a law degree from Harvard, where he was an editor of The Harvard Law Review.

As a young lawyer, Mr. Cross became general counsel for the Sheraton Corporation of America, the hotel chain. In the early 1960s, Sheraton sent him to San Francisco to put an end to a sit-in over racially discriminatory hiring practices at one of its hotels. The task made him uneasy.

“It seemed to me that I was working on the wrong side for the wrong people,” Mr. Cross told Fortune magazine in 1987.

He took a leave of absence and became involved in civil rights work, participating in the second of the three historic voting rights marches that began in Selma, Ala., in 1965. A lifelong Democrat, Mr. Cross later advised the Johnson and Nixon administrations on economic development opportunities for black Americans.

Brian Meacham '97 | 11:17 AM | Alumni | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 18, 2010

Amherst bans student membership in Psi Upsilon

Yesterday, the Amherst administration took action against one of the off-campus fraternities that count Amherst students among its members. Amherst students are now forbidden from joining Psi Upsilon, effective immediately.

Amherst had already kicked its fraternities off-campus in the mid 1980s and converted the houses into upperclassman residences. Fraternities were not abolished, however: A handful of fraternities have survived and continued from that point up the present day, with the understanding that their activities must not occur on the Amherst campus. Now, the administration has taken a further step against Psi Upsilon, which we believe is an unprecedented action, at least since the early 1990s when we began arriving on campus.

We’ve received a copy of an e-mail to the Amherst student body from Tony Marx, which we’ve reproduced below. We don’t have any other information and have not heard if the national office of Psi Upsilon has issued a reaction (assuming that Amherst’s Gamma chapter was currently affiliated with the national organization at the time of Marx’s announcement). We’ll keep you posted as we get more information. You can also contact us at amerst@gmail.com

——Original Message——
From: President’s Office [mailto:president@amherst.edu]
Sent: Wed 2/17/2010 8:22 AM
To: all-students
Cc: Allen Hart
Subject: Ban on Membership in Psi Upsilon

To the Amherst College Student Body:

The Trustees’ Resolution on Fraternities mandates that no College facilities shall be used by fraternities or sororities; there can be no such activities on campus. The Board established this rule to help ensure that our community lives up to its ideals of inclusivity and equality of opportunity. The Student Handbook clearly states that fraternities and sororities that conduct activities on campus, as well as students who participate in these activities, will be judged in violation of this resolution.

As a result of a serious violation involving the leadership and members of the off-campus fraternity Psi Upsilon, and on the advice of the College Council, the College now prohibits all students from joining this organization. This ban is effective immediately. The College will take disciplinary action against any student who is found to be a member of or participating in any activities sponsored by Psi Upsilon, whether those activities are held on or off campus. Disciplinary sanctions in such cases may include suspension or expulsion from the College.

The College may review this decision after a period of at least four years. In light of recent events, members of other off-campus fraternities and sororities should be aware that the College will be monitoring their compliance with the Trustees’ resolution, and that any violations may result in the prohibition on membership being extended to all off-campus fraternities and sororities.

Yours,

Tony Marx

Dave Nardolillo '98 | 12:54 PM | Student Life | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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