President Messages from the President

November 29, 2023

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,

Like many others, I have been profoundly shaken by the shooting of three college students of Palestinian descent in Burlington, Vermont, on Saturday—a horrific act that reminds us of the vulnerability of Palestinian lives and the real threat of Islamophobia that, like antisemitism, has escalated dramatically in the United States during the last two months.  

Against the backdrop of that violence, many members of our community have continued to work to provide opportunities for us to learn about the conflict in the Middle East and its reverberations here. I write to call your attention to a recently organized panel being held tonight in addition to the Bret Stephens event announced earlier this month. This panel, “Broadening Perspectives on Israel-Palestine,” will take place at 5:30 p.m. at Pruyne Lecture Hall and features Dr. Ahmad Samih Khalidi of the Geneva Center for Security Policy, Hampshire College Professor Omar Dahi, and Professor Christopher Dole of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology.

November 20, 2023

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,

As we enter the November break, I want to acknowledge that our sense of community has been challenged by the range of emotions and perspectives we have felt in response to the continuing violence and profound suffering in the Middle East.  

I am going to repeat some of what I have said previously about our principles at Amherst College because they are the absolute foundation of what we do and who we are, and because the tenor and rhetoric of some recent online posts and comments directed at students have violated these principles.

October 31, 2023

Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students,

Even as our campus focuses its attention on the tragic violence in Israel and Gaza, the College also remains committed to supporting our local community. Toward that end, I write to let you know that after discussions that have unfolded over the past several months, we announced today a donation to several pillars of that community—namely the Jones Library, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, and the Drake arts and cultural performance venue—as a strategic partner with the Town of Amherst. We continue to work with the Town on a more comprehensive agreement that will include additional support.

October 11, 2023

Dear Students, Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and Families,

As classes resume after fall break, I am writing today to express my outrage and grief at Saturday’s brutal attack by Hamas on Israel and its people. This week, I have been appalled by the images and accounts of the violence and acts of terror against Jewish people and other Israelis. I am also anxious about the potential for further loss of life of Israelis and Palestinians in the coming days and weeks. I share the pain of so many members of the Amherst community, whether they are our faculty, staff, and students on campus—or our alumni and families at a distance.

October 10, 2023

Dear Faculty and Staff,

As we return to classes from fall break, we write to share with you the message that Student Affairs sent to all students on Sunday. As you will see from the message, our primary concern is caring for our students at a time when they are processing the horrific news and images of violence coming from Israel and Gaza. We know that this will be a moment of profound anxiety for many of our students—as well as for many of you—and we are also aware that issues regarding Israel and Palestine elicit strong and divided views in our community and worldwide.

September 26, 2023

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,

As you know, I am committed to reflecting on the College’s history with honesty and intentionality in order to grasp more fully the complex present in which we live. As part of our 2020 Anti-Racism Plan, we launched work on a broad and deep historical study of the College’s ties to slaveholding and capital accumulation connected with slaveholding. While we have learned much about the College’s ties to the slaveholding economy, there is still more to be learned on this topic and regarding the College’s involvement in racial discrimination in the many decades after the Civil War.

May 25, 2023

Dear Faculty, Students, and Staff,

I am thrilled to announce that Sheree M. Ohen, most recently the associate dean for equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging at Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, will join the Amherst community as our Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer (CEIO) on June 20.

As CEIO, Sheree will oversee the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, which is responsible for leading Amherst’s institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, ensuring compliance with Title IX and other civil rights standards, and partnering with colleagues across campus. She will also serve as a member of my senior staff, and she will help to shape our broader institutional strategy.

Sheree brings a wealth of experience to this important leadership position for the College. At Harvard, she supported a community of more than 15,000 individuals, with a particular focus on partnership building, policy development, diversity training, and institutional accountability. She previously served as chief officer of diversity and inclusion at Clark University and in leadership positions at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of California, San Francisco. You can learn much more about Sheree in this morning’s press release.

May 16, 2023

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,

Over the past three years, with engagement from all constituencies, the College has revisited the important and complex question of campus safety, seeking to understand and respond to the range of safety needs and diversity of experiences within our community. Working collectively, we have sought to create a campus safety model that situates safety in the broader context of wellness, connection, belonging, trust, and equity. 

One year ago, the Campus Safety Advisory Committee (CSAC) was formed to review and implement recommendations that emerged from the prior two years of community discussions. Chaired by Angie Tissi-Gassoway, initially in her equity and inclusion leadership role and now as Chief Student Affairs Officer and Dean of Students, CSAC includes student, staff, and faculty representatives, including representatives from the Community Safety Assistant (CSA) team and leadership from the Amherst College Police Department (ACPD), Center for Counseling and Mental Health (CCMH), and the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (ODEI).

March 30, 2023

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,

Since my arrival at Amherst last August, and even before, I have received many questions about my commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in our community—both about the progress Amherst has made toward these goals over the last decade and more, and about my own vision, values, and aspirations for how that work will continue and evolve. On each of those occasions, and in the lead-up to our current national search for a new Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer, I’ve engaged people on how Amherst is attempting to become a community that is not just demographically diverse, but one in which every member of the student body, the staff, and the faculty feels a true sense of belonging.

I’m writing today to share my thoughts on this work, and also to share an update on the far-reaching and transformational progress we've made on the College’s 2020 Anti-Racism Plan over the last year. I use the 2020 Anti-Racism Plan as a blueprint for our evolving and ongoing efforts, and I encourage you to have a look at our recent accomplishments. (The next update will be in the fall semester.)

March 27, 2023

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,

This week, we will welcome special guest Kenneth S. Stern, an internationally renowned expert on hatred and antisemitism and director of Bard College’s Center for the Study of Hate. I encourage you all to attend his talk, “Antisemitism and Binary Thinking: Campus Culture and the Future of Democracy” at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 29, in Stirn Auditorium.

We must not underestimate the persistent problem of antisemitism and its profound impacts on our world. Many of you will be aware that antisemitism is on the rise, with Jews facing increased harassment and violence in the U.S. and globally. In addition to violence against Jews at synagogues and elsewhere, we see prejudice and discrimination against Jews being instrumentalized in political platforms worldwide. I imagine that most of us are also aware of the prevalence of antisemitic tropes in contemporary conspiracy theories, of social media as an amplifier of those tropes, and of the prominence of Holocaust deniers on social media and YouTube.

March 21, 2023

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,

I am excited to share the important news that Angie Tissi-Gassoway, currently the interim Chief Student Affairs Officer, will take on that role permanently, along with the Dean of Students title, effective immediately. You can find our public announcement about Angie on our website.

As many of you know, Angie has been a member of our community for 11 years, and this appointment marks a full-circle journey at Amherst for her, since her tenure began in Student Affairs. Over that span of time, they have demonstrated over and over how dedicated they are to the students of Amherst College, one of the many reasons they are held in such high regard across campus.

February 3, 2023

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,

As a follow-up to my message last week about Angie Tissi-Gassoway moving into the Interim Chief Student Affairs Officer (CSAO) position, I am very pleased to tell you that Sheila Jaswal (she/her), Professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry-Biophysics, and Education Studies, and Faculty Equity and Inclusion Officer (FEIO), has generously agreed to move into the Interim Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer (CEIO) role, effective immediately. (The position opened with Angie’s move to the interim CSAO position.) Sheila has worked closely with Angie in advancing the work of equity and inclusion at Amherst and especially with our faculty. That experience, including serving on the ODEI senior leadership team, makes her a wonderful fit for this interim role.