We, the members of the Amherst Men’s Cross Country Team, sincerely and deeply apologize to the entire Amherst community for the pain caused by our recently published remarks. There are no words to justify what was said and we are all responsible for the harm inflicted by our team’s comments. We are embarrassed and ashamed…Continue Reading A Statement From Amherst Men’s Cross Country
Month: December 2016
Men’s Cross Country Maintained Misogynistic, Racist Email Chain
by Daniel Ahn, Helen Mayer, and Sam Wohlforth A current junior member of the Amherst cross-country team sent a team-wide email containing a list of women that described their sexual histories and supposed sexual proclivities next to their photographs on June 14, 2015. The list was directed to the first-year recruits who awaited matriculation to Amherst…Continue Reading Men’s Cross Country Maintained Misogynistic, Racist Email Chain
Editorial: After Men’s XC Emails, Examine All Athlete Spaces
by Helen Mayer, Sam Wohlforth, and Daniel Ahn We were motivated to write this editorial because we believe that the national conversation started by Donald Trump’s “locker room talk” comments has added precious little to the conversation around sexual violence and athlete culture. Until recently, we had no reason to believe that the Amherst administration…Continue Reading Editorial: After Men’s XC Emails, Examine All Athlete Spaces
Houses of the Future: Balancing Luxury and Utility
To many, the idea of home automation belongs to the realm of science fiction. Nevertheless, this technology is appearing all around us. “Home automation” refers to the use of one or more computers to control basic home functions and features. These technologies have the capability to revolutionize the way in which we function in our…Continue Reading Houses of the Future: Balancing Luxury and Utility
Rest Stop
Sitting at the counter of a rest stop someone once told me, “A man knows where he is from when he knows where he wants to be buried.” And maybe married? Parry the blow. I know my spot already: On this cliff’s deep green Looking out to sea, to see the curved horizon proving the…Continue Reading Rest Stop
Deplorable Common Spaces
Another day, another pile of crusty plates and bowls and spoons to scrape the scum off of. I head down to the first-floor kitchenette, and what do I find? Counters covered in mysteriously sticky substances. Dirty dishes left in the sink for days on end. A bottle of Smirnoff, empty (the latter trait irking me…Continue Reading Deplorable Common Spaces
Harry Potter and the Cursed Trump
On September 1, 1998, a protection charm was placed on America without any of us knowing. It was also the release of the first installment of the Harry Potter series. This spell has had an effect on the minds of millions over the last eighteen years, transfiguring an entire generation of millennials, and consequently, the…Continue Reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Trump
Ex-Varsity
If you’ve ever wondered what Amherst athletics has to say about its program, here it is: “Amherst College has the oldest athletics program in the nation, dating back to a compulsory physical fitness regimen that was put in place for all students in 1860. Today, over a third of the student body participates in varsity…Continue Reading Ex-Varsity
Academics Anonymous
It seems odd that a college which has just opened an office for diversity and inclusion, one which makes such concerted efforts to combat discrimination, has not yet implemented a system of anonymous grading. Setting aside one particular idealism of a liberal arts education—a haughty presupposition that grades do not really matter anyway and…Continue Reading Academics Anonymous
A Letter to Spacetime
Dear spacetime, I was going to write separate letters to space and to time but someone told me that your addresses were the same. I have never written to you. You don’t really know me. My role in your grand existence is that I cause little distortions. Very tiny distortions. In the spacetime where I…Continue Reading A Letter to Spacetime
The Long Life of Names
In protesting the racist Lord Jeff mascot, student activists often cite his record of approving of genocidal tactics against the Native tribes his British army was trying to suppress. They rightly quote his letter to a subordinate in which he wonders “Could it not be contrived to send the Small Pox among those disaffected tribes…Continue Reading The Long Life of Names
Asking For It
Both on our campus and in the national news, “rape culture” has become a recent buzzword, catapulted into the forefront of our thoughts and conversations. When reading news articles, it’s easy to feel enraged about Donald Trump and “pussygate,” or fume over Brock Turner’s grossly expedited jail sentence and marvel at how anyone might question…Continue Reading Asking For It