Editor's Note: Introducing Paid Newsroom Positions and The Student Voices Fund

Editors-in-Chief Ryan Yu '22 and Rebecca Picciotto '22 announce the launch of The Amherst Student Voices Fund, a program that sponsors a number of paid positions in the newsroom for students with financial need, students of color, and other underrepresented groups.

Local Proposal Aims to Address Housing Crisis but Lacks Deliverable Plan

With Amherst College, Hampshire College, and UMass Amherst placing pressures on the local housing market, the Amherst Town council has introduced a new affordable housing policy. Some town members question whether local colleges should do more.

Looking at the Life of a Writer, Unedited

If Hannah Gersen ’00 could write in her ideal conditions, her days might look something like this: She would sleep in, then squeeze in a workout, followed by some reading. At around 10 a.m., she would start writing and continue until 4 p.m., when she would call it a day. But Gersen’s days have never really looked like this. As is often the case, the romanticized life of a writer — in which their daily schedule is decided only by the timing of an intense and unpredictable whim of inspiration — d

9/11 Cannot be Business as Usual

I don’t have any memory of the attacks that took place on Sept. 11, 2001. I was one year old, fast asleep in my crib in northern New Jersey. My parents got the rest of the day off from work, which, on any other occasion, would have been cause for celebration. Instead, they were huddled around the TV, watching the skyline they had always taken for granted on their daily commute get swallowed by clouds of smoke. I don’t have any recollection of this. And yet each year when Sept. 11 rolls around,

What Makes a Vote Count?

The day we elect our next president is over 13 months away. My inner procrastinator finds it ridiculous that I’m giving any ounce of thought to something that distant. (Really? You’re leaving your summer reading for Sept. 2, but this gets 400+ days worth of forethought?) Maybe it’s because we’ve had two rounds of Democratic debates. Maybe it’s because every fourth news notification I get is about the latest Joe Biden gaffe. For whatever reason, Nov. 3, 2020 is already on my mind. But maybe I’m

Analyzing the 2019 Super Bowl Commercials

Every year, over 100 million people tune in to the Super Bowl on the same channel at the same time — but for very different reasons. There are those who have religiously followed the two teams all season. There are those who bet a little too much on the coin flip and are watching because their financial security depends on it. And then there are those whom I often identify with: the ones really only watching for the commercials. The Super Bowl is not just about football anymore — it has evolved

"New Year, New Me" and Other Lies We Tell Ourselves

At first glance, the title of this piece may come across as cynical. But I promise that I am not writing this to justify my failed New Year’s resolutions and attack the concept as a whole. Instead, I am intrigued by the unlikely power of a New Year’s resolution — how can something like the Earth making a revolution around the sun prompt something as unrelated as individual life improvement? How have we convinced ourselves that a fresh calendar automatically grants us a fresh start? I am trying