News & Events 07/2012

by William Sweet

Faculty moved back to Amherst’s iconic Johnson Chapel last week, ending an exile that began on Feb. 13, when part of a plaster ceiling fell and broke a sprinkler pipe, causing the building to flood. The professors came back to a Johnson Chapel that truly is old and new again, thanks to a renovation project that’s now wrapping up.

Photo: Gasper Tringale

July 3, 2012

Critically acclaimed author and editor Cullen Murphy ’74 has been elected chairman of the Amherst College Board of Trustees, effective immediately, announced outgoing chairman Jide Zeitlin ’85 on Tuesday.

In announcing the new board chair’s appointment, Zeitlin praised Murphy’s dedication to his alma mater.

“Cullen is admired on the board and beyond as a thoughtful leader with an enormous intellect,” Zeitlin said. “He exemplifies the life of the mind and the values that define our undergraduate liberal arts college. Amherst has benefited from Cullen’s dedicated service during the past 12 years. The Board and I look forward to Cullen’s leadership as he and Biddy and others in the Amherst community work to make Amherst even stronger and more distinctive in the years to come.”

July 26, 2012

A visitor to 105 Converse Hall this July might think Torin Moore is no fan of filing paperwork. But there’s an order to the hundreds of documents strewn about his yellow office. The papers are first-year housing questionnaires that members of the Class of 2016 have faithfully completed; they are stacked in potential—and often changing—two-person roommate combinations.