News & Events Press Releases

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(Amherst, Mass., March 18, 2021) — In honor and celebration of the Western Massachusetts institution’s 200th anniversary this year, Amherst College has released three new books: Eye Mind Heart: A View of Amherst College at 200, the signature book of the Bicentennial, by Nancy Pick ’83; Amherst College: The Campus Guide, by Blair Kamin ’79 (Princeton Architectural Press); and Amherst in the World by Martha Saxton, professor of history and sexuality, women’s and gender studies and Elizabeth W. Bruss Reader, emerita. All three are available for purchase on the Bicentennial website.

“Among many other things, Amherst has long been known as ‘The Writing College,’” said Amherst President Biddy Martin, “and we are celebrating the Bicentennial with the publication of these three books. They illuminate aspects of the history of the College with emphasis on its firsts, its quirks, little-known facts, thinkers, architecture and so much more. I hope they might add to a very happy 200th anniversary to every member of the Amherst community.”

Amherst College’s CHI Fellows and Mead Art Museum Collaborate on a Virtual Exhibition that Explores our Ideas of Home

(Amherst, Mass., May 3, 2021) — Hidden Drives: The Scene and Unseen of Home is a collaboration between the Mead Art Museum and five fellows in residence at Amherst College’s Center for Humanistic Inquiry (CHI). Over the past year, the CHI Fellows focused on different aspects of how artwork in the Mead’s extensive collection related to the CHI’s theme of home—how our perceptions and experiences of home are controlled by forces that might be invisible to some while intensely felt by others. 

The Hidden Drives exhibit launched in March, and CHI Fellows will be in residence at Amherst through June 2021. Each year the CHI welcomes a cohort of fellows to Amherst to teach and conduct research relevant to a timely theme. 

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(Amherst, Mass., April 20, 2021) —Kiara Vigil, associate professor of American studies at Amherst College and co-founder of the College’s Native American and Indigenous studies (NAIS) program, has been awarded a $300,000 grant as part of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s prestigious New Directions Fellowship. The funding will enable Vigil to learn, practice and preserve the endangered language of her ancestors, Dakota, and translate a number of Dakota-language papers and publications in Amherst’s extensive Kim-Wait/Eisenberg Native American Literature Collection (KWE Collection).  

“I feel extremely fortunate and honored to be able to not only gain access to a language lost to me because of colonization, but to collaborate with Indigenous language teachers on creating new materials that will benefit Dakota people for generations to come,” said Vigil. “In addition, I am eager to include Amherst students as partners in this project as I build a website that will be a resource for both historians and the general public interested in learning more about Dakota contributions to United States history and culture.”

Recorded Stories of Black Alumnae Will Culminate in Podcast Series and Live Online Conversations This Fall

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(Amherst, Mass., April 7, 2021) President Biddy Martin announced today an exciting project that will feature Amherst’s Black alumnae, illuminating their distinctive and influential contributions to the College and the wider world, while also bringing their varied experiences and perspectives to light. 

Black alumnae of the College are invited to record recollections of their experiences at Amherst. Then, this fall, they will join together for a series of live online conversations open to all alumni; current students, faculty and staff; and potential students to talk, share, learn and enjoy the stories and achievements of these remarkable women.

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Highlights Include Three New Books, Podcasts, a Public Art and Activism Project, An Outdoor Trails Revitalization, Original Music Compositions and More 

(Amherst, Mass., Feb. 24, 2021) — In 1821, a group of residents from the town of Amherst, Mass., and surrounding communities founded the Amherst Collegiate Institution for the “education of indigent young men of piety and talents for the Christian ministry.” Two centuries, millions of courses, tens of thousands of degrees and contributions to the world by alumni later, the school that became Amherst College will celebrate its Bicentennial through a series of creative and engaging events and initiatives throughout 2021.

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(AMHERST, Mass., Jan. 21, 2021) — Amherst College will host the sixth annual LitFest this year, an annual literary festival celebrating fiction, nonfiction, poetry and spoken-word performance—as well as the College’s extraordinary literary life—Feb. 25-28. Against the backdrop of the global pandemic, the event has gone virtual, but it will still feature top-notch readings and conversations with award-winning authors. This year’s lineup includes Charles Yu, winner of the 2020 National Book Award (NBA) for fiction; 2020 NBA fiction nominee Megha Majumdar; 2020 NBA poetry finalists Tommye Blount and Natalie Diaz; and Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum, among others.

 

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(Amherst, Mass., February 16, 2021) — During Black History Month, Sonya Clark ’89, award-winning artist and professor of art and the history of art at Amherst College, has launched the final phase of the Solidarity Book Project (SBP), a collaborative artwork and activist initiative open to the public. In this phase, participants will learn how to sculpt the iconic raised fist symbol into the pages of thematically relevant books. At the project’s conclusion in September 2021, an immersive exhibition including participants’ sculpted books will be mounted. As is the case with all three phases of the project, each participant’s submission will be matched by individual donations from the College up to a total of $100,000 to provide access to books to Black and Indigenous communities in need.

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(September 24, 2020) —Today, more than 80 college and university leaders have signed onto a statement co-authored by Presidents Biddy Martin of Amherst College and Michael S. Roth of Wesleyan University urging the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to abandon its announced civil rights investigation into Princeton University.  

[Update, October 1, 2020: More than 110 have now signed the statement.]

Martin and Roth defend Princeton’s right--and the right of all “individuals, families, communities, businesses, corporations, and educational institutions”--to examine the country’s “legacies of slavery and racial oppression” and their own roles in perpetuating these legacies, past and present. They criticize the DOE for “using our country’s resources to investigate an institution that is committed to becoming more inclusive by reckoning with the impact in the present of our shared legacies of racism….We stand together in recognizing the work we still need to do if we are ever ‘to perfect the union,’” they write. “We urge the Department of Education to abandon its ill-considered investigation of Princeton University.”

Amherst College will use 2UOS Essential to build high-quality, online versions of its largest enrollment courses

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(Amherst, Mass., July 8, 2020) Amherst College is preparing for the fall semester by bringing some of its highest enrollment courses online in partnership with 2U, Inc. (Nasdaq: TWOU), a global leader in education technology. Amherst faculty will reimagine their larger, lecture-style courses in a high-quality, online format with the
support of 2UOS Essential, 2U’s bundled solution to help colleges and universities build, deliver, and support a hybrid learning experience this fall. 

July 7, 2020

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Yesterday afternoon, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced changes to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program for non-immigrant students on F-1 and M-1 visas for academic and vocational study. The changes would force international students to leave the country or transfer to an institution offering in-person classes if their colleges and universities are offering classes entirely online during the fall semester. We are baffled by what we consider a terrible decision, and we condemn it. The announcement goes so far as to suggest that if institutions offering a mix of in-person and remote classes go completely remote during the semester, international students would then have to leave the United States.

The English and American studies professor will research the environmental history of eastern coyotes and their adaptation to climate catastrophes and colonization.

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(Amherst, Mass., April 29, 2020) – Lisa Brooks, professor of English and American studies at Amherst College, has been awarded a prestigious fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Brooks is one of just 175 writers, scholars, artists and scientists from a pool of 3,000 applicants this year to receive the award, which is based on prior achievement and future promise.

In all, 53 scholarly disciplines and artistic fields, 75 different academic institutions, 31 states and the District of Columbia, and two Canadian provinces are represented among the 2020 Guggenheim Fellows, who range in age from 29 to 82.

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(AMHERST, Mass., April 27, 2020) — Martin Garnar has been named director of the library at Amherst College, it was announced by Catherine Epstein, Provost and Dean of the Faculty. He joins the College from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, where he was dean of the Kraemer Family Library and a faculty member. Garnar will assume the position on August 1, 2020.

“Martin was the unanimous and enthusiastic choice of the search committee, which was impressed with his wide range of experience, leadership style, and enthusiasm and support for the liberal arts mission,” said Epstein. “When he visited campus in February, those who met with him were struck by his knowledge, vision, collegiality, and ability to connect with members of the community.”

Alumnus closes books on storied 42-season career with 800+ wins, eight league championships and two NCAA national titles

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(AMHERST, Mass., April 13, 2020) — Legendary Amherst College head men’s basketball coach David Hixon ’75, who holds the record for number of wins in a single sport while coaching at Amherst, has decided to retire, Director of Athletics Donald Faulstick announced today. During his storied 42-season career at his alma mater, Hixon was the third coach in men’s basketball history across all National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) divisions to surpass the 800-win mark. His overall record of 826-293 places him 15th on the NCAA’s list of most wins in men’s collegiate basketball.

Additionally, Hixon’s Amherst teams defeated archrival Williams in 17 of the last 21 contests the two schools played.

Changes include a test-optional policy and no advance tuition deposit.

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(AMHERST, Mass., April 6, 2020)—In response to the enormous global disruption that has accompanied the rapidly evolving COVID-19 public health crisis, Amherst College has announced a set of modifications designed to help students and families in these extraordinary times.  

The Amherst College Office of Admission, with the consultation and approval of the Faculty Committee on Admission & Financial Aid, will suspend for one year its requirement that students applying for first-year admission submit SAT or ACT scores. This test-optional policy applies to applicants for the first-year class during the 2020-21 admission cycle; students applying for transfer admission to Amherst already have no requirement to submit SAT or ACT scores. Applicants may still submit SAT or ACT scores for consideration. However, first-year and transfer applicants should not submit SAT Subject Tests, as they will no longer be considered in Amherst’s admission process.  

March 20, 2020

Dear students, faculty, and staff, 

We write with an update about the steps the College is taking to address problems with the culture and actions of the men’s lacrosse team. Findings of individual responsibility for violating the Honor Code lie with the disciplinary process in the Office of Student Affairs. That process is underway. Federally mandated student privacy protections mean that those findings will not be shared.