October 27, 2005

Four colleges?

A column in today’s UMass Daily Collegian raises some interesting ideas.

What prompted me to write this column was a recent petition going around Amherst College, which calls for Amherst to withdraw from the five-college consortium because “students from academically less-prestigious schools are polluting the academic environment at Amherst College.” Now, it does not take a scientist to figure out which “less prestigious school” they are talking about. And why are we less prestigious? Because we have less money in our endowment? Or is it because of those frequent riots we all love to take part in?

I guess my first question would be, is there really such a petition?

As former non-student residents of the town of Amherst, it’s too easy for us to take pot shots at UMass students, so we won’t. We are, however, a bit disturbed by the idea of Amherst withdrawing from the Five Colleges consortium, and we wonder if the students circulating the petition have really looked at the issue from all sides?

For example, how many classes does the Five College Consortium make available to College students that the College would otherwise be too small to offer? We recall taking 19th Century Russian Poetry from a bona fide 20th Century Russian Poet (and Nobel Laureate to boot) at Mt. Holyoke, for example. How about library books? We’ve have to steal a lot of titles from Williamstown to make up for that balance.

But those are, really, minor issues. I’m sure someone with a good grasp of the College history could construct an argument around the idea that withdrawing from the Consortium would actually be a rejection of the College’s own mission.

And, last but not least, why can’t I find anything about this in the Student?

Update: Reports from campus suggest that the petition may be either a misunderstanding or a figment of the Collegian columnists imagination.

Parker Morse '96 | October 27, 2005 09:20 PM | Campus | Town