AAS Represents the Student Body

The AAS Senate has several responsibilities:

  • Representing the student body to the faculty, administration, and community at large by serving on various committees.
  • Recognizing student clubs and organizations, and allocating the Student Activities fee to fund campus events.
  • Serving as an advocate for student interest, promoting student life initiatives, and presenting a forum for opinions and issues to be raised.

General/Committees

It makes recommendations to the administration based on student input, supports student programming such as clubs and organizations, and approves new clubs, funds student activities, and puts on campus wide events. AAS members serve on a wide variety of student/faculty committees, share student perspective with faculty members, and affect major change at Amherst College.

  • Establishing an annual donation to an Indigenous organization as an acknowledgement that Amherst College stands on Nonotuck land

  • Serving on the Covid Student Task Force to advocate for the needs of students both on-campus and remote

  • Working on bringing about change as outlined in the Reclaim Amherst campaign

Activities

Here you will find what the AAS Senate has done in the past, what we do every year and what we are currently working on. If you have any comments or suggestions, please go to the suggestions box tab on the left, email aas@amherst.edu or come to our weekly open senate meetings at 8:30 p.m. in the Red Room. 

  • Funds club events, activities, equipment and other things necessary for the functioning of clubs on campus. For more information visit the AAS Budgetary Committee tab on the left.
  • Funds the Campus Activities Board, which organize campus-wide events.
  • Supplies New York Times and Wall Street Journals every day in Val and offers onlince access to the New York Times. (See below for more information.)
  • Places student representatives on faculty and administrative committees such as the Committee on Priorities and Resources, the College Council, and the Committee on Educational Policy
  • Helps to fund Take Your Professor Out (TYPO)
  • Pays for part of the college’s PVTA dues, providing students with area bus service.
  • Supports periodic late night snacks in Val.
  • Works on projects to improve student life called Senate Projects.
  • Allows clubs use of AAS vans to get to club events. (For more information visit the Transportation tab on the left.)
  • Allows Amherst students to receive a free yearbook. For more information on the Olio visit http://www3.amherst.edu/~olio/.
  • Pays for subsidized tickets to the UMass Fine Arts Center. To see current shows visit https://fac.umass.edu/Online/.
  • Purchases movie rights for the Amherst College Film Society, which screens movies in the theatre in Keefe.
  • Initiates all-school surveys to gauge student opinions and sends all-school emails to inform the student body about important AAS initiatives.
  • Offers free shuttle service to Bradley International Airport, Boston, and New York before and after academic vacations.
  • Allocates money to Amherst health services to continue to supply free condoms to students.
  • Offers free boxes at the end of the year to help students move out of their rooms.