Archives: Student Life

May 25, 2008

Congratulations to the Class of 2008!

… and best wishes for the future!

Oh, and think about blogging for us! It is a fun way to stay connected to the College and help keep other alumni and memebers of our community informed of all the various happenings surrounding the Fairest College and its alumni.

Drop us a line at amerst@gmail.com to get involved.

Dave Nardolillo '98 at 07:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Administration investigates Confessional website

We got a tip about a month ago on this story from a reader, but now that I have a moment to post something, it’s worth highlighting now.

Inside Higher Ed’s (IHE) Andy Guess filed a report on the Confessional websites that have been starting up at several campuses around the country. One of these sites, which are essentially open message boards to post anything that comes to one’s mind, is present on the Amherst campus.

Billed as a portal to “share thoughts, debate ideas and communicate … anonymously,” the Confessional sites have deteriorated into arenas for obscene, vitriolic, defamatory and libellous comments and gossip about topics such as the sexual proclivities and preferences of individual students, who are sometimes mentioned by name or described in such a thinly veiled way that their identities are clear to the reader. Although the site administrators apparently attempt to weed out such postings, it is clear that many are not caught.

The original Confessional site was the creation of an Oberlin student and after an uproar at that campus the participation was limited to those with an Oberlin e-mail or with access to a computer located on the campus. That step has proven to be a hollow remedy as the objectionable postings apparently continue.

Sadly, Amherst is not an outlier to this situation. Things got so bad on the Amherst version of the website that the Editorial Board at the Amherst Student used its regular space in a March issue to argue that the College’s administration should shut down the Amherst version of the website entirely.

IHE notes in its report that attorneys for the College are planning to contact the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office to discuss potential legal action.

This raises a number of questions that IHE’s reporting does not answer. First, the IHE article notes that the Oberlin Confessional was eventually restricted to students using campus computers or signing in with Oberlin e-mail addresses. If access to the Amherst version is limited in the same way it would seem to me that much of the key information about who is posting this material would be available to the College’s IT department.

Perhaps the College would like the Massachusetts AG to issue a subpoena to the administrators of the Amherst Confessional website to divulge which IP addresses or e-mail logins are posting what material, but unless I am missing something doesn’t the College already have access to pieces of this puzzle? Does the College need to engage law enforcement to conduct additional discovery, or is it utilizing the Massachusetts AG to relieve it from the alternative of monitoring communications of its own students?

To be clear, I am not being critical of such a strategy—I feel for longtime Dean of Students Ben Lieber, who ultimately has to deal with this—and most people can certainly appreciate the College taking care to ensure a proper approach to confront the issue, but I think it is fair to ask the College what information about usage of the site is already in its possession and control, via its own network usage data.

Students also need to realize that there is little First Amendment protection for such writings on the internet, and the College would be perfectly within its rights to suspend or expel the parties responsible for the defamatory writings. Future employers can also take action based on their view of the proceedings. Most will not write such behavior off as an innocent college prank.

For those of us who have been to law school in the last few years, the AutoAdmit.com lawsuit is a cautionary tale for those that like to participate on such websites. AutoAdmit.com (a.k.a. xoxohth.com) is a website directed at law students with similar problems as the Confessional sites, but a group of female law students allegedly aggrieved by several postings there took action and sued the administrators of the site (and are also seeking information regarding that site’s “anonymous” posters). While many legal scholars debated the merits of the lawsuit (the plaintiffs apparently have little recourse against the administrators who did not post the items in question), enough information about the lawsuit became public that one of the administrators, a University of Pennsylvania law student, had a prior job offer revoked by a large law firm after it learned of his association with the site. The argument that AutoAdmit provided a space for “free expression” clearly did not fly with that law firm’s managing partner.

Shutting down these sites (and others, like the Daily Jolt) is probably a futile response by the administration, since other websites would undoubtedly crop up to replace them. But I hope that Amherst students (and others using similar websites) will soon altogether disassociate themselves from engaging in such behavior. If any students get caught in association with the objectionable postings on the site, the national attention such online misbehavior is getting recently will mean those indiviudals will likely face a variety of serious repercussions with lasting effects.

Dave Nardolillo '98 at 05:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 21, 2008

Sabrina watch: New York City

Parker has covered the recent heist of Sabrina by a daring group of ’08s here and here.

Some of my classmates now living in New York City reported a Sabrina appearance in that city on Tuesday evening. Could someone send us a report and some photos? Leave a comment or contact us at amerst@gmail.com or dnardo@gmail.com … no questions asked!

Dave Nardolillo '98 at 02:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 23, 2007

Marx issues statement on Solomon Amendment

Ten days ago, the College released a statement by President Marx on Amherst’s policy regarding military recruiters on campus. This issue had been a fairly hot topic amongst most institutions of higher education in the last two years until a recent Supreme Court ruling essentially resolved the debate.

The short story: Some colleges and universities had been refusing to allow military recruiters on campus in protest of the “don’t ask don’t tell policy” which essentially forbids homosexuals from serving in our armed forces. In particular, some law schools had been doing the same when military recruiters came looking for new JAG lawyers by refusing to allow the interviews to take place on campus property. The government fought back by threatening to enforce a law know as the Solomon Amendment, which would allow the government to pull all financial support from any school that barred military recruiters. In dealing with the law schools, the amendment is a powerful remedy. Not only can the government pull funding from the law school, but it can also pull funding from the entire university to which the law school belongs. For many universities, the penalties (which I believe also include fines) would be in the 8 figure range, if not higher. Litigation ensued regarding the constitutionality of the law. In the FAIR v. Rumsfeld decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Government. I’ve skipped some details, but that’s the general setup.

That brings us to President Marx’s statement; you can find the whole thing here.

This is the key paragraph:

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that schools must open their campuses without restrictions to military recruiters if the schools wish to receive federal funding—funding that helps support the first-class scholarship and research taking place at Amherst every day. As a result, we have opened Amherst to military recruiters without precondition. We will also sign formal agreements with the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) at UMass to ensure that our students may participate in its programs. We do not wish to hold the college apart from the armed forces, but rather to honor those who defend our nation.

Additionally, Marx announced he would continue the debate regarding the Solomon Amendment via programming in February: Marx will convene a panel of recent alumni who have served or are currently serving in the military. Marx also announced that the college would host General Wesley Clark and Northwestern University military sociologist Charles Moskos for a colloquium debate on reinstituting the draft.

I think that this is the right path for the college to follow, for a number of reasons. Even though I do not believe that the military should bar homosexuals from serving in our armed forces, I do believe that the military deserves the same access to schools receiving federal funding that other employers receive; I suspect that many who read this will disagree with that position and we certainly welcome all comments and opinions on this issue.

Moreover, I like the College’s stated position because it also implicitly reaffirms something that I think we all believe: Amherst students are intelligent enough to engage the issues and make their own choices when it comes to their respective career paths; the College should not interfere with that process.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not highlight an article in the November 7 edition of the Amherst Student which adds a bizarre twist to this story (the article is only available via print copy as of this writing). Student Publisher Suvayu Pant ‘09 reported on the November faculty meeting in and article entitled “Faculty Backs Enviro-Studies.” Despite the title, the article was a summary of the meeting, which covered a number of topics. Pant’s article contained the following paragraph (to which I have added emphasis):

[ …] Marx told the faculty that the College will continue its policies on on-campus military recruitment, even after the Supreme Court ruled against policies like the one the College currently holds. In 1987, the faculty decided that military recruitment officers would be welcome on campus, but must explain their “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” on homosexuality. However this policy infringes on a Supreme Court ruling mandating that institutions of higher education be more open to military recruitment. This breech of law could cost the College $600 million in fines. But Marx said the College’s values dictate that it insist military recruiters explain their don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.[ …] Nonetheless, Marx said the College should not discriminate against students interested in joining the military.

It does not take more than a cursory glance at the above paragraph to notice a significantly different tone from the official college statement. I have many questions about what is reported above (is $600 million really the College’s exposure here?), but assuming everything that Pant reported was accurate and putting aside the moral arguments, was the College seriously considering risking a $600 million dollar penalty? While I have no reason to question whether Pant accurately reported the content of the meeting, the notion that the College would even consider taking such a massive penalty, in this case a fine roughly equal to half the current value of the endowment, is absurd. Did Pant’s article contain some sloppy reporting, or did Tony Marx radically change his position in the span of one week?

Comments on any or all of the above are welcome.

UPDATE 11/24: The Student has issued a correction regarding Suvayu Pant’s article. I discuss that correction here.

Dave Nardolillo '98 at 01:09 PM | TrackBack

August 21, 2007

Best wishes to all incoming first-year students!

This evening, I attended the annual send-off party for first-year students matriculating from Minnesota. This great event was again graciously hosted by Dave ‘81 and Kathleen (Foye) ‘83 MacLennan. The alumni and current student/parent turnout was great as usual, despite less than ideal weather, and the new first-years are again a remarkable group of people.

These events, which occur around the country, are nice for the students—who get to meet some of their classmates before setting foot on campus, receive some useful advice from the current students and learn that the “H” in “Amherst” is silent!—but they are also important for the College as the presence of so many supportive alumni, students and parents convey an important and compelling message about the Amherst experience and the power of its alumni network.

All of us here at Am’erst want to welcome all the new first-years to the Amherst team as they head out to campus later in the week. Drop us a line from time to time to let us know what’s new in the Pioneer Valley or even consider posting for the site (our e-mail is amerst@gmail.com).

Best wishes for the next four years and beyond!

Dave Nardolillo '98 at 12:30 AM | TrackBack

July 25, 2007

The Amherst Chirp

We’ve been informed about a relatively new blog, The Amherst Chirp, which aims to be a source of news tidbits from campus.

First and foremost, The Chirp is a blog about Amherst College and things relating to it. Each and every story posted will have some relevance to Amherst College, even if that relevance is tangential at best.

We’ll be paying attention to The Chirp to get our weekly fix of small but significant college news; you can find it under the “Links” section on the right side of this page.

Brian Meacham '97 at 12:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 12, 2007

Is the Class of 2011 overenrolled?

We have heard some chatter over the last couple of weeks regarding unofficial reports that the incoming Class of 2011 is significantly overenrolled. I have not found a statement from the College confirming this, but our own inquiries here support the initial reports.

On May 16, the Wall Street Journal reported that although the admissions office had anticipated a 36% yield, 40% of the students accepted to Amherst had decided to attend. If you combine that yield with the 1,167 acceptances reported in the April 4 edition of the New York Times, the result would be an incoming class of around 466 (the 36% number would produce a class of 420). 466 students looks high to me, even when considering that Amherst has had significant class size fluctuation in the past (The Class of 2002 had 441 students and the Class of 2008 has around 430 members. I was stunned to learn that I have 445 classmates listed on the alumni website. In contrast, Parker reports that his class (1996) was below the 400 mark.).

However, our sources close to campus report that the incoming class may have as many as 480 students. Fortunately, we have also heard that the College will have adequate housing for this number; incoming students have reported that the first-year housing questionnaire offers seven dormitory choices (Pratt, James, Stearns, North, South, Appleton, Williston).

Although such a large class raises questions regarding the impact on available resources and the student/faculty ratio, I am curious to know if the overenrollment can be traced to an increased popularity of Amherst versus our traditional overlaps, or if it was simply a downstream consequence of the increased number of applications to colleges across the board.

We welcome your comments and input on all aspects of this story: additional facts and context, causes, implications, etc. In the meantime, we’ll watch out for further information as well.

EDIT: Some additional information has been added at the end of the second paragraph at 4:32 EST.

PARKER Morse ‘96 adds: N.B. the “Pratt” in question here is the new Charles Pratt dorm (the former Geology building), not the newly-renovated Morris Pratt. This is part of the long-term plan to put all first-year students on the Quad.

Dave Nardolillo '98 at 02:59 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Report: Amherst fourth in final Directors' Cup standings

Although, at the time of this entry, the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) has not yet formally released the final results of the Directors’ Cup, which is awarded to the college with the best intercollegiate athletic department (based on a scoring system that awards points based on a school’s performance in NCAA Division III tournament competition), Williams College, via its sports information department, announced that it has won the Directors’ Cup for the ninth consecutive year.

Also contained in the press release (scroll down to the bottom) is a list of top 10 finishers. Amherst placed fourth on the list. Middlebury was second and SUNY Cortland was third.

This would be the highest finish ever for Amherst in the history of the award. Once the NACDA posts the official list, I’ll have a couple more comments. In the meantime, congratulations to the athletes, coaches and all their supporters for a great year!

UPDATE (5:18 CST): It’s official, Amherst has placed fourth in the Directors’ Cup.

Although Brian highlighted the national championship won by the Amherst men’s basketball team, we fell behind in discussing some other special athletic accomplishments from the winter and spring which added points to Amherst’s Directors’ Cup score. Here they are in no particular order.

Women’s swimming and diving finished second at nationals, behind Kenyon College, but ahead of defending champion Emory University and NESCAC champion Williams. Brittany Sasser ‘08 was named Swimmer of the Meet and Head Coach Nick Nichols took home Coach of the Meet.

Women’s ice hockey qualified for the Division III Frozen Four, after a breakout season which featured its first NESCAC Championship, earned after stunning national runner-up Middlebury in triple overtime. Goaltender Krystyn Elek ‘10, who was outstanding all season, stopped 65 of 66 shots on goal in that contest alone.

2007 marked another outstanding year for Coach Jackie Bagwell and the women’s tennis team which also finished second in the national tournament, falling to Washington and Lee University in the final. In the individual tournament, Alicia Menezes ‘08 and Brittany Berckes ‘10 won the national doubles title, the first such win in Amherst history . Women’s tennis has advanced to at least the quarterfinal round of the national tournament every year since 1998.

Women’s track and field took fourth place at the NCAA Championships. Shauneen Garrahan ‘07 capped off an outstanding career by winning three individual championships in the three day meet.

Did we overlook any special team or individual performances? Please let us know in the comments.

Again, congratulations to all!

Dave Nardolillo '98 at 12:11 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

June 04, 2007

New York Times on Tony Jack '07

Tony Jack ‘07 is the subject of a New York Times story (now behind a paywall but available through the International Herald Tribune) about Amherst’s attempts to seek out the most talented students, regardless of their ability to pay Amherst’s tuition.

“We want talent from across all divides, wherever we can find it,” Marx said. Amherst covered the full cost of Jack’s education beyond what he earned through work-study jobs provided by Amherst as part of his financial aid package. The only monetary debt Jack says he owes is the $41 it cost to make copies of his 107-page honors thesis.

Brian Meacham '97 at 10:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 07, 2007

NPR on Amherst and the "Class Divide"

As part of an ongoing series on “The Haves and Have-Nots,” NPR’s Jim Zarroli spoke with President Anthony Marx, Griffin Bidron ‘08, Keith Erzinger ‘08, Jake Maguire ‘07, and physics professor David Hall, as he investigated the way class differences affect students at Amherst. Marx notes that schools like Amherst, described as “the picture of WASPy privilege” in the opening of the story, “are among the few places where people of all income levels can interact” in an increasingly stratified society.

Thanks to my dad for the tip; read and listen to the story on NPR.org.

Brian Meacham '97 at 12:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 29, 2006

185th Commencement

The College celebrated its 185th Commencement this past weekend, with honorary degree recipients Alan M. Blum ’69, David R. Ferry ’46, Amos B. Hostetter Jr. ’58, Myriam P. Sarachik, Wendy Puriefoy, and W. Richard West, Jr., delivering lectures after the ceremonies. Photos and audio from the College.

Brian Meacham '97 at 11:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 07, 2006

The Crimson on Amherst fashions

Staff writer Rebecca Harrington of the Harvard Crimson used a trip to Amherst recently to “do some valuable fashion reconnaissance work on the Amherst population,” which she kindly passed on to her fellow Harvard students in a piece in the Arts section of her paper this week. Her conclusions, after attending a performance of “The Vagina Monologues” and a party, were that “People aggressively don’t care about fashion (unlike the mere lack of initiative on the Harvard campus) and you have to admire it. I mean, at least they are practical and substantive.” She ends the piece with the following tips:

1) Be able to wear sandals at inappropriate times. 2) Speak disparagingly about Mount Holyoke College while wearing a sweatshirt that says, “Mount Holyoke College” on it. 3) Get a French Press.

I’m sure Amherst students are very glad to have finally been subject to the sartorial scrutiny of the Harvard Student body. Thanks.

Brian Meacham '97 at 03:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 31, 2005

Xavier students relocate to Amherst

An AP story on CNN.com tells the story of seven students from Xavier University in New Orleans who have been “taken in” by Amherst after Hurricane Katrina closed their school.

Tameka Noel, a senior pre-med student, is described as missing “friends, and Cajun food, and Bourbon Street, which puts small-town Amherst’s nightlife to shame.”

Amherst has not only enrolled the students for the year, but has also looked out for their well-being in other ways:

Amherst took its visitors shopping for the winter clothes they suddenly needed, and is even paying for them to fly home for Thanksgiving. In the classroom, it organized tutorials to help them catch up after missing the first two weeks of class. College officials say the students are doing fine academically.

Kudos to the College for doing its part in this way; any thoughts on whether these efforts are enough, or should Amherst be doing more?

Brian Meacham '97 at 09:07 PM | Comments (1)

June 24, 2005

"Declining by Degrees" this weekend

Amherst is one of four colleges and universities featured in a new investigative report that airs on PBS stations around the country this weekend, “Declining by Degrees.” The program is based on a book, Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk, by Richard J. Hersh and John Merrow. The other schools featured in the program, representing different types of higher education opportunities around the country, are the University of Arizona, Western Kentucky University, and the Community College of Denver.

Brian Meacham '97 at 09:25 AM

May 21, 2005

Commencement tomorrow, honorands announced

Amherst College will hold its 184th Commencement Exercises this weekend, with graduation and the conferring of honorary degrees to take place tomorrow on the freshman quad, weather permitting.

Honorary degree recipients this year include Kazuo Asakai ‘67, Japan’s ambassador to the European Union; architect Shigeru Ban; author and historian Natalie Zemon Davis (The Return of Martin Guerre; Paul E. Farmer, founder of Partners in Health; Senator John Glenn, biochemist and MacArthur ‘genius’ Amy Rosenzweig ‘88; novelist Robert Stone; and William Julius Wilson, sociologist of urban poverty. Each will be giving a talk or participating in a conversation after the ceremony, as tradition holds; for our money, it’s a toss-up between hearing John Glenn speak in Johnson Chapel and listening to Amy Rosenzweig ‘88 and her talk, “Here’s to You, Larry Summers” in Converse.

Anyone who attends is encouraged to send updates, accounts, and photos of the weekend’s events to us at amerst@gmail.com.

1839 Amherst Commencement program from Amherstiana.org.

Brian Meacham '97 at 09:55 AM

May 16, 2005

Amherst '05s talk about September 11

An ABC News story talks to two members of the Class of 2005 about their memories of September 11, 2001, near the beginning of their freshman year. Margaret Cahoon ‘05 and Paige Wallace ‘05 were among the students from colleges and universities across the country interviewed for the story, which tells of the ways students experienced community and re-thought their priorities in light of the attacks.

Brian Meacham '97 at 06:24 PM

February 09, 2005

Class of 2009 Early Decision results

This week’s Student reports on the results of early decision applications for the class of 2009. 367 students applied, and 128 (nearly 35%) were accepted. Read the article for full details.

Brian Meacham '97 at 11:05 AM

February 08, 2005

Jolt from the past

Six years after it was founded at Amherst (and, in the interest of full disclosure, five years after I worked there), the Daily Jolt has finally arrived at Harvard. It’s a shame that the Crimson article printed the URL incorrectly, but the online version got it right: the legally palatable crimson.dailyjolt.com. It’s been a long time since the Jolt first launched at Amherst and at Brown, and it’ll be interesting to see how it fits in with the controversy-plagued and competing facebook sites at Harvard.