Amherst College Jazz Ensemble To Perform Première of "City Scape" May 2

April 29, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—The Amherst College Jazz Ensemble will perform its final concert of the academic year at 8 p.m. on Monday, May 2, in Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Building at Amherst College. This concert is free and open to the public.

Featured on this program will be the première of "City Scape," an exciting new three-movement piece by Nathan Childers. This is to be the first in an annual series of works commissioned by and written for the Amherst College Jazz Ensemble, called "The Robin McBride Jazz Commission Series." Robin McBride, a 1959 graduate of Amherst, is an ardent supporter of jazz efforts in performance and education at Amherst College. In addition to the new piece, the Jazz Ensemble will perform work of such noted composers as Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington and Matt Harris, as well several chestnuts associated with Frank Sinatra.

A freelance saxophonist, composer and teacher currently on the scene in New York City and throughout New England, Childers will be a featured soloist with the ensemble. Seniors who have been involved in the jazz performance program at Amherst will be honored. For more information, please visit the jazz at Amherst Website, or call the Jazz Ensemble director, Bruce Diehl, at 413/542-8308.

Refreshments will follow the performance in the Green Room area behind Buckley Recital Hall.

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Amherst College Graduate Joseph Rachiele Awarded Watson Fellowship To Explore Pick-Up Basketball Around the World

April 25, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—Joseph Rachiele, who graduated from Amherst College in January, has been awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship and will travel around the world to study cultural imperialism in a uniquely "hands-on" fashion, playing pick-up basketball and reporting on his experience. Rachiele, a graduate of Shorewood High School, is the son of Julia Rachiele of Seattle, Wash.

Rachiele will be looking for a game in New Zealand, Argentina and Puerto Rico "and also for answers to some questions about cultural diffusion, American imperialism and macho masculinity. 'Does the recent growth in popularity of basketball throughout the world indicate the existence of an American Empire?'" he asked in his Watson application. And "how has the diffusion of basketball affected gender roles?"

A founder of the Progressive Students Alliance at Amherst, Rachiele has been active in Amnesty International, Union Summer (AFL-CIO), the Campaign for Labor Rights and Books for Boys in New York City. He worked at the college media center, as a teaching assistant in physics, a student physics researcher at the University of Colorado and as a landscaper in the summers. A physics and political philosophy major, Rachiele also performed in seven dramatic productions at Amherst.

The Thomas J. Watson Fellowships provide 50 exceptional college graduates, from 49 of America 's leading liberal arts colleges, with the freedom to engage in a year of independent study and travel abroad. The program was begun in 1968 by the family of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., the founder of IBM, to honor their parents' interest in education and world affairs. More than 2,200 Watson Fellows have studied all over the world with the support of Watson Fellowships.

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Amherst College Senior Christine Hagan To Study Biology of Disease at Cambridge on Churchill Scholarship

April 25, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—Christine L. Hagan, a senior at Amherst College, has been awarded a Winston Churchill Foundation Scholarship to study chemical biology next year at Churchill College, Cambridge University, England. She is a graduate of John Jay High School in Cross River, N.Y., and is the daughter of Denise Lepicier and Edward Hagan of Brewster, N.Y.

Particularly concerned with the workings of diseases at the molecular level, Hagan, whose major at Amherst is chemistry, intends to pursue a Ph.D. in a biochemical field and eventually become a university professor. "I want to devote my life to continually learning more about why the intrinsic properties of molecules make them behave the way they do," she wrote in her application for this scholarship, and added, "I have also felt that work ought to benefit society directly."

Hagan won the Bevetz Prize at Amherst to support her senior honors thesis and a Pfizer Fellowship for summer research. She was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a national academic honor society, in 2004. Her honors research adviser, David Hansen, a professor of chemistry at Amherst, wrote that Hagan "is one of the finest students" he has taught; he characterized some of her exams as "works of art."

At Amherst College Hagan has been active in the Emergency Medical Service, the Newman Club and Five-College and Amherst College dance performances. She is also a member of the college quantitative skills working group.

The Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States was established in 1959 as an expression of American admiration for one of the great leaders of the free world. With the enthusiastic endorsement of Sir Winston, the Foundation undertook to encourage the exchange of knowledge and the sharing of ideas in science and technology between the United States and Great Britain. The Churchill Scholarship Program enables outstanding American students to do graduate work in engineering, mathematics and the physical and natural sciences at Churchill College, Cambridge University and the Churchill Fellowship Program enables American professors to spend a period of time in research at Churchill College.

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Amherst College Senior Cricket Fisher Receives Keasbey Scholarship To Study Youth Violence at Oxford University

April 25, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—Herrick "Cricket" Fisher, a senior at Amherst College, has received a Keasbey Memorial Foundation Scholarship to explore the causes of youth violence in the department of social policy and social work at Oxford University. A graduate of Northfield Mount Hermon School in Northfield, Mass., Fisher is the daughter of Terry Fisher of Lexington, Mass. and Jody Lisberger of Exeter, R. I.

Fisher, a sociology, psychology and social policy major at Amherst, spent her summers working with "children with psychological, behavioral, developmental and learning disorders." She wrote in her Keasbey application that she hopes at Oxford to study "the myriad factors that contribute to youth violence," something she experienced firsthand while working at a summer camp for troubled boys. "I plan to design family intervention programs to reduce youth violence in urban communities," she wrote, after she earns an M.A. degree in social work or Ph.D. in clinical psychology, stressing the need for both "holistic social policies" and an "international perspective."

Active as a Student Health Educator and Peer Advocate of Sexual Respect at Amherst, Fisher was also a member of the Feminist Alliance, the Women's Choir, "Beyond Bodies," a healthy body image group, and performed in the "Vagina Monologues." She has been a member of several dance groups, the outdoors club and the women's rugby club, and pursued the practice of yoga.

Marguerite Keasbey established the Henry Griffith Keasbey and Anna Griffith Keasbey Memorial Foundation in 1953 to honor her parents. In the interest of promoting Anglo-American relations and providing Americans with an opportunity to experience the British educational system, the Keasbey Memorial Foundation awards scholarships to support two years of study at selected British universities. Amherst is one of a select group of American institutions periodically invited to nominate three candidates to the national competition.

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Amherst College Senior Laura Schlosnagle Receives Fulbright Grant To Teach English in Germany

April 25, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—Laura Schlosnagle, a senior at Amherst College, has received a J. William Fulbright Fellowship to teach English in Germany next year. A graduate of Mayo High School, Schlosnagle is the daughter of Donald and Janet Schlosnagle of Rochester, Minn.

Recalling a family camping trip on Lake Superior as a child, Schlosnagle wrote in her application that "though space in the packs was limited and my father had to carry heavy equipment, he bought along The Lord of the Rings in three hardcover volumes." She learned early to "value literature and the art of language," and writes that teaching in Germany will "bring together several harmonious, but currently rather isolated, facets of my interests and goals."

Schlosnagle is an accomplished musician, an oboist who has also soloed with the Amherst College Orchestra and took up the German language at Amherst, in part to better understand scores and libretti. She studied Arthurian literature at the University of Bristol (England) the second semester of her junior year, and spent the preceding summer in Germany with Projekt Grosser Grenzverkehr, an initiative that strives to introduce young people in rural areas of the former German Democratic Republic to western ways and combat right-wing extremism.

At Amherst College Schlosnagle's major areas of study are English and German studies. After her Fulbright Schlosnagle hopes to attend law school and specialize in international law, with an emphasis on German politics and economics.

Congress created the Fulbright Program in 1946 to foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchanges. Senator J. William Fulbright, sponsor of the legislation, viewed scholarship as an alternative to armed conflict. Today the Fulbright Program, the federal government's premier scholarship program, funded by an annual Congressional appropriation and contributions from other participating countries, allows Americans to study or conduct research in more than 100 nations.

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Amherst College Senior Zeke Phillips Receives Fulbright Grant To Teach English in Taiwan

April 25, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—Ezekiah "Zeke" Phillips, a senior at Amherst College, has received a J. William Fulbright Fellowship to teach English in Taiwan. A graduate of Newton South High School, Phillips is the son of Russell and Elise Phillips of Newton, Mass. Phillips wrote in his application that he hopes to "explore the pedagogy behind the teaching of English in Taiwan... I believe these experiences might help me to better teach English."

Phillips, who hopes to pursue an advanced degree in education and teach English in an urban public high school, has some experience in the classroom already. He has worked as a tutor and volunteer in Amherst area schools, and also last summer as a teacher at Summerbridge Cambridge, part of a national educational program that provides a path to college for high-potential, low-income middle-school students.

At Amherst College Phillips's major area of study is English, and he is the chair of Amherst TEACH, a student organization that advocates for and supports all things related to teaching and education. Phillips was also a varsity athlete with the cross-country and track teams at Amherst.

Congress created the Fulbright Program in 1946 to foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchanges. Senator J. William Fulbright, sponsor of the legislation, viewed scholarship as an alternative to armed conflict. Today the Fulbright Program, the federal government's premier scholarship program, funded by an annual Congressional appropriation and contributions from other participating countries, allows Americans to study or conduct research in more than 100 nations.

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Joy DeGruy-Leary to Speak on "Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome" at Amherst College April 29

April 25, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—Joy DeGruy-Leary, professor at Portland State University, will give a talk titled “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: The Residual Impact of Trauma on African Descendants in the Americas” at 4 p.m. on Friday, April 29, in the Cole Assembly Room at Amherst College. Sponsored by the Amherst College Charles Drew House, the Black Student Union, the Association of Amherst Students, the Interdepartmental Fund, the Theme House Fund, the Office of the President and the Campus Center, the event and a reception to follow are free and open to the public.

Leary's ground-breaking social theory of “post-traumatic slave syndrome” looks beyond the continuing inequality and racism to the damage done to the victims of American chattel slavery and its traumatic impact upon present day black Americans. Leary's research also shows the effects of post-traumatic slave syndrome on the culture of white America.

Leary, who has 20 years of practical experience as a professional in the field of social work, gives workshop attendees practical insights into various cultural and ethnic groups that form the basis of contemporary American society. Her workshops also go far beyond the topic of cultural sensitivity, providing specialized clinical work in the areas of mental health and ecological resilience. She has made presentations to Harvard University, Columbia University, Fisk University and the University of Chicago, as well as to many federal and state agencies.

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Peter Pouncey, President Emeritus of Amherst College, is Author of Rules for Old Men Waiting

April 25, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—Peter Pouncey, the president emeritus of Amherst College, recently published Rules for Old Men Waiting ($21.95, Random House, New York, 2005), a novel about three wars of the 20th century and a marriage. According to novelist and memoirist Frank McCourt, it is “a deeply sensual, moving, thrilling novel that calls for a second and third reading—it is that rich.”

Robert MacIver, the protagonist of Rules, is a recently widowed and rapidly aging historian grieving alone in the winter in an unheated Cape Cod house “older than the Republic.” The house is perhaps more debilitated than MacIver is: when the frame of his dwelling starts collapsing, he formulates his “Ten Commandments for Old Men Waiting.” Because one injunction is to “Work every morning,” he writes a short story about the suffering of soldiers in the First World War, drawing on materials he gathered for an oral history of victims of poison. Rules for Old Men Waiting is a story within a story, an invented tale of the Great War that prompts MacIver to reflect on his role in the Second World War and his son's in Vietnam. The Times of London praised it as “an intense, memorable little book.”

The president of Amherst College from 1984 to 1994, Pouncey is a classicist by training. Born in China to English parents, Pouncey was educated in the Greek and Latin classics in English boarding schools and at Oxford. He taught at Fordham University and Columbia University, specializing in classical historiography. He served as dean of the college at Columbia during the politically active 1970s.

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Three Amherst College Faculty Members Are 2005 Guggenheim Fellows

April 25, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—Three members of the faculty at Amherst College are on this year's list of Guggenheim Fellows. David Gloman, a visiting lecturer in art, received a grant for his painting; Maria Heim, an assistant professor of religion, to study Buddhist theories of moral intention; and Natasha Staller, associate professor of fine arts, to research Goya's black paintings and the culture of the monstrous in Spain. They are among the 184 artists, scholars and scientists awarded 2005 Fellowships by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Gloman, who has taught at Amherst since 1997, refers to himself as “an abstract painter who paints the landscape.” Educated at Indiana University, where he received a B.F.A. degree, and Yale University, where he received the M.F.A., he has also taught at those universities, and at Smith and Hampshire Colleges. Gloman was awarded the 1997 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award and the 1997 purchase prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work was also included in the 2000 Exhibition of the National Academy of Design.

Heim, who received a B.A. degree in philosophy and religion from Reed College and a Ph.D. in Sanskrit and Indian studies from Harvard University, is interested in South Asian religion and ethics and Sanskrit and Pali language and literature. Her first book concerns specifically religious conceptions of the gift and generosity in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, and she is now working on Buddhist theories of moral agency. She has been a member of the Amherst faculty since 2003.

The author of A Sum of Destructions: Picasso's Cultures and the Creation of Cubism (2001), which was a finalist for the Charles Rufus Morey Book Award and Choice 2003 Outstanding Academic Title, and received the Eleanor Tufts Award of the American Society for Hispanic Art Historical Studies, Staller was educated at Wellesley College (A.B.) and Harvard University (Ph.D.) and has taught at Amherst since 1992, after teaching at Princeton University and the University of Chicago. She has had fellowships at Harvard, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania and Radcliffe College. Working on The Sum of Destructions for more than 20 years, Staller has lectured on Picasso's cultural heritage in museums and universities, and published parts of the book in Arts Magazine, Art Bulletin, Art History and the catalog of Picasso:The Early Years (1997), an exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. Each fellow receives his or her grant for a minimum of six months and a maximum of 12 months. Since the purpose of the Guggenheim Fellowship program is to help provide fellows with blocks of time in which they can work with as much creative freedom as possible, grants are made freely. No special conditions attach to them, and fellows may spend their grant funds in any manner they deem necessary to their work.

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Annual Emily Dickinson Poetry Walk and Concert Commemorate Poet's Death May 14

April 20, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—The Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst will sponsor the annual Emily Dickinson Poetry Walk on Saturday, May 14, at 1 p.m. The walk honors the memory of poet Emily Dickinson, who died on May 15, 1886. The event is free and open to the public. At 4 p.m., the Museum and Amherst 's First Congregational Church are co-sponsoring a special concert of Emily Dickinson 's poems set to music. The concert is the season finale of the church's Music on Main concert series.

The Poetry Walk will begin at 1 p.m. in the Homestead garden at the Museum, and will proceed through Amherst, stopping at various sites significant in Dickinson's life. (A full schedule is attached.) Members of the Amherst community, including members of First Congregational Church, the Amherst Historical Commission and Five College students from Dickinson classes will read a selection of Dickinson's poems at each location. At 2:30 p.m. the procession will arrive at the West Cemetery on Triangle Street to gather at the Dickinson grave, where all are welcome to read their favorite poems and to join in a lighthearted toast to the poet's memory.

The Emily Dickinson Museum will host an Open House after the Walk from 3 to 4:30 p.m. The houses will be open for self-guided tours during that time and guides will be available to answer questions. Admission is free.

The 4 p.m. concert, entitled “This is my letter to the World,” features soprano Elizabeth Sanders Munsell, accompanied by Carrie-Ann Matheson. Ms. Munsell will sing a selection of Dickinson song settings by composers Robert Baksa, Lori Laitman, Willis Bridegam, Librarian Emeritus at Amherst College, and Aaron Copland. Featured poems include “Two butterflies went out at noon,” “I'm Nobody,” “The Sky is Low” and “Going to Heaven!” Adding to the performance, Baksa and Bridegam will be present to read from Dickinson's work.

Linda Smith, Music on Main series coordinator, said, “This is a special opportunity to collaborate with the Museum and highlight some of Emily Dickinson's poetry. With the church across the street from the Museum and part of the Emily Dickinson Historic District, it seems particularly fitting to feature her work in concert here.”

The concert will take place in the sanctuary of the First Congregational Church, located at 165 Main Street, across from the Emily Dickinson Museum. Tickets for the concert can be purchased for $10, or $5 for children and students. The sanctuary is accessible. An informal reception to greet the performers will follow.

Programs and maps of the one-mile route of the Poetry Walk will be available at the Museum. Participants are welcome to join the Walk at any point along the route. Those who wish to participate only in the cemetery reading should meet at the Dickinson grave in West Cemetery on Triangle Street at 2:30 p.m.

The Emily Dickinson Museum, comprising the Dickinson Homestead and The Evergreens, two historic house museums in Amherst, is devoted to the story and legacy of poet Emily Dickinson and her family and is located at 280 Main Street in Amherst. The Dickinson Homestead was the birthplace and residence of Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), and The Evergreens was the 1856 home of the poet's brother and sister-in-law, Austin and Susan Dickinson. Both properties are owned by the Trustees of Amherst College. For more information, please call the Museum at 413/542-8161 or visit www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org. Wheelchair accessible parking is available at the Homestead; all other vehicles are asked to park on the street or in an Amherst College lot on Spring Street. Call for more information about accessibility.

Emily Dickinson Poetry Walk

Schedule of Readings

1 p.m. Dickinson Homestead Garden, 280 Main Street

1:20 p.m. Amherst Train Station, Railroad Street

1:40 p.m. Front steps of the Evergreens, 214 Main Street

2 p.m. Front lawn of the Jones Library, 43 Amity Street

2:20 p.m. Parking lot behind Zanna, 187 North Pleasant Street (next to Ren's Mobil Service, site of Dickinson 's home)

2:30 p.m. Dickinson's grave site, West Cemetery, Triangle Street

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David W. Wills is Author of Christianity in the United States

April 20, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—David W. Wills, the Winthrop H. Smith '16 Professor of American History and American Studies (Religion and Black Studies) at Amherst College, is the author of Christianity in the United States: A Historical Survey and Interpretation ($13, 140 pp., University of Notre Dame Press, South Bend, Ind. 2005), a brief but comprehensive study that provides a broad interpretation and a wealth of factual information on the history of Christianity in the United States.

Wills considers the diversity of American Christianity, charting the growth of American religious pluralism, but he also emphasizes Christian efforts to build a “holy commonwealth” and the role of religion in the nation's effort to come to terms with the realities of race. Placing the history of Christianity in the United States in the larger context of the globalization of the Christian religion, Wills links the rise of African-American Christianity with the emergence of Christianity in the non-western world. He also argues that the history of Christianity in the United States concerns itself in a central way with the relation of religious ideas, institutions, constituencies and practices to the creation and exercise of political power.

Wills, who has taught at Amherst since 1972 is the general editor of African-American Religion: A Documentary History Project, a comprehensive view of African-American religion from the earliest 15th-century African-European encounters along the African coast to the present in the United States. Wills received his A.B. degree from Yale University, a B.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from Harvard University, and has been a fellow of the National Humanities Center and the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African-American Research, among others.

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Jide Zeitlin, Partner at Goldman Sachs, Elected Chair of Amherst College Board of Trustees

April 20, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—Jide Zeitlin, 41, a partner at Goldman Sachs, has been elected chair of the Board of Trustees at Amherst College. Zeitlin succeeds current chair Amos B. Hostetter Jr., 68, who has led the board since 1998 and whose term ends June 30, 2005.

In announcing Zeitlin's election, Hostetter praised the incoming chair's dedication to his alma mater. “Jide's longstanding commitment to Amherst, and the wisdom and insight he has brought to his work on the Board during the past 12 years, make this a terrific appointment,” Hostetter said.

In accepting the board chairmanship, Zeitlin reflected on the importance of education in his own life, and expressed his desire to work with the board, faculty and administration to build on Amherst's many strengths and its tradition of excellence. A 1985 Amherst graduate, Zeitlin believes that the college must challenge itself if it is to remain robust and relevant in a rapidly changing world.

“I learned at an early age the importance of education,” Zeitlin said, “and I have a real appreciation for how the pursuit of knowledge can broaden opportunities for young people.” Born in Nigeria to a domestic servant with limited formal education, Zeitlin was adopted by an American family when he was 5 years old. “I grew up in a family that had modest financial means,” Zeitlin said, “but that was rich in a tradition of learning and knowledge.” He added that he came to Amherst because “everyone here had a real passion about education. Amherst pushes you to learn; it doesn't let you hide. The power of the type of education Amherst provides is extraordinary,” Zeitlin said. “I hope that we can apply this passion to challenge ourselves—at the individual level, the institutional level and the board level. I also hope that as we further strengthen this college, we will make it even more accessible to the best and brightest young men and women of every socio-economic background within and outside the United States.”

Zeitlin is a senior investment banker at Goldman Sachs, where he began as a summer intern after his sophomore year at Amherst. Zeitlin was elected a partner at Goldman Sachs in 1996, and has held a number of senior management roles in the firm's investment banking division and executive office.

Zeitlin is also an active alumnus at Harvard, where he earned his M.B.A. in 1987. A member of the board of Teach for America and Common Ground Community (a non-profit housing and community development organization headed by Rosanne Haggerty '82), he also is a trustee of Milton Academy, Montefiore Medical Center and Playwrights Horizons. He serves on the Harvard Business School Visiting Committee.

Zeitlin joined the Amherst board in 1993 as an alumni trustee. When his term as an alumni trustee ended in 1999, the board appointed him to a term trusteeship. For the past seven years, he has led the Budget and Finance Committee. In addition, Zeitlin was on the 14-member Presidential Search Committee that brought President Anthony W. Marx to Amherst in 2003.

Zeitlin graduated from Amherst magna cum laude with a double major in economics and English. He lives in New York City with his wife, Tina Goldberg, and their infant son.

Current Board Chair Amos B. Hostetter Jr. graduated from Amherst in 1958. He joined the Board in 1989 and has been chair since 1998. During his tenure, the college's endowment doubled, from $540 million to more than $1 billion, and the college successfully completed The Amherst College Campaign, which secured more than $269 million to support research, financial aid and a range of capital projects. In 1999, Amherst implemented a new financial aid initiative that eliminated loans for a broad range of low- and middle-income families. Most academic and athletic buildings on campus were renovated during Hostetter's chairmanship, and the college recently launched a comprehensive renewal of its dormitories through the Residential Master Plan. Hostetter chaired the college's Presidential Search Committee in 2003.

“This college is so much stronger because of Amos' singular leadership over the past seven years,” Zeitlin said. “He has exhibited exceptional judgment and grace in thoughtfully leading this institution. Amherst will long be indebted to Amos for all he has contributed to the college.”

Amherst's Board of Trustees is comprised of the president of the college, ex officio, and 20 other members: 14 term trustees, elected by the board, and six alumni trustees elected by alumni of the college.

Founded in 1821 for “the education of indigent young men of piety and talents,” Amherst College is now widely regarded as the premier liberal arts college in the United States, enrolling a diverse group of approximately 1,600 young men and women. Well known for its academic excellence, Amherst is also consistently ranked among the very best schools in the country in terms of accessibility: The college's financial aid packages are consistently the most generous in the U.S., and among its peer universities and colleges Amherst has the greatest economic diversity. Diversity, in its broadest sense, is fundamental to Amherst 's mission. The college enrolls students from every state and more than 40 countries, and for the past several years more than 35 percent of Amherst 's students have been students of color. Amherst offers the B.A. degree in 33 fields of study.

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Philosopher Peter Railton To Speak on “Well-Being and Happiness ” at Amherst College April 28

April 20, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—Peter Railton, the John Stephenson Perrin Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan, will speak on “Well-Being and Happiness” on Thursday, April 28, at 4:30 p.m. in the Pruyne Lecture Hall (Fayerweather 115) at Amherst College. Railton's talk, sponsored by the Department of Philosophy at Amherst College and the Forry and Micken Fund in Philosophy and Science, is the final lecture in a series on Well-Being. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Railton's main research has been in ethics and the philosophy of science, with special interest in questions about the nature of norms, values, objectivity and explanation. He has been a visiting professor at Berkeley and Princeton, and he has received fellowships from the Society for the Humanities (Cornell), the American Council of Learned Societies, the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is also an Associate of CREA (Ecole Polytechnique), Paris. He is the author of Facts, Values, and Norms: Essays Toward a Morality of Consequence (2003).

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Sing We and Chant It: The Amherst College Madrigals Spring Concert April 22

April 20, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—The Amherst College Madrigals will present a concert of early music and other songs at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 22, in The Octagon at Amherst College. The concert and a reception following the performance are free and open to the public.

Selections include “Sing We and Chant It,” “April is in My Mistress's Face” and “The Queen to Me a Royal Pain Doth Give” by P.D.Q. Bach, along with several other English, French, Italian, Latin and Spanish pieces.

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Darfur Survivor Mohamed Yahya To Speak at Amherst College April 21

April 15, 2005
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.—Mohamed Yahya, a refugee from the Darfur region of Sudan and chairman of the Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy, will give a talk titled “Death and Indifference in Darfur: A Survivor Speaks” at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 21, in the Cole Assembly Room at Amherst College. Sponsored by Humanity in Action, the Amherst College Democrats and the Office of the President at Amherst College, the event is free and open to the public.

Born in a village in Darfur, Yahya knows the racism of Sudanese society. Like the other black students in his school, he was beaten for speaking his tribal language instead of Arabic. Living later in Khartoum, he witnessed the practice of kacha, in which black men are abducted by Sudanese police and army officers. In 1993, his village was among the first attacked by the Sudanese government's Arab militia raiders, the janjaweed. Yahya was studying at Al-Azhar University in Cairo at that time, but his village was destroyed and its inhabitants—and many of his relatives—were killed, raped or burnt alive in their huts. Hearing that his parents had been spared, Yahya decided to take action to save the black African Sudanese from annihilation. He founded an organization that would eventually become known as Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy, the first group to reach out to the international community about the genocide in Darfu.

Eric Reeves, a professor of English language and literature at Smith College, will introduce Yahya. Presently at work on a book on the international response to the ongoing war and human destruction titled Sudan: Suffering a Long Way Off, Reeves has spent the past six years researching and analyzing the situation. He has testified several times before the Congress, has lectured widely in academic settings, and has served as a consultant to a number of human rights and humanitarian organizations.

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