Press Releases

Popular Two-Term Ohio Governor and 2016 Presidential Contender to Headline Public Event

(AMHERST, Mass., January 16, 2019) — Amherst College today announced that John R. Kasich, Ohio’s outgoing two-term governor and 2016 presidential contender, will speak on campus on Thursday, February 7, at 8 p.m. at Johnson Chapel. The event is open to the public.

Kasich, a Republican, has served as Ohio governor since January 2011 and officially completed his second term today with the swearing-in of his successor, Mike DeWine. (The state’s governors are limited to two successive terms.) Kasich’s priorities were focused on restoring fiscal stability to Ohio, driving economic growth and job creation, modernizing infrastructure, developing a model to fight drug abuse and addiction and seeking bipartisan solutions on key national issues such as health care.

Prior to serving as Ohio’s governor, he was a member of Congress for 18 years, where he served as chairman of the House Budget Committee and worked to balance the federal budget for the first time since man walked on the moon. Kasich also served as a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Event, Marking its Fourth Year, will also Feature Award-Winning Authors Jamel Brinkley, Brandon Hobson, Elizabeth Kolbert and Charles C. Mann

Jennifer Egan

(AMHERST, Mass., December 19, 2018) — Amherst College will host LitFest 2019, its fourth annual literary festival celebrating fiction, nonfiction, poetry and spoken-word performance, on February 27-March 2. The event will feature readings, conversations and book signings with Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Jennifer Egan and Elizabeth Kolbert, renowned science writer Charles C. Mann, and 2018 National Book Award for Fiction finalists Jamel Brinkley and Brandon Hobson, among others. The festival takes place on the Amherst College campus and is free and open to the public.

The Partnership is First Collaborative Purchase of New England-Generated Solar by Any Higher-Ed Consortium

(AMHERST, Mass., December 14, 2018) — Five of the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges have formed a pioneering collaborative that will allow them to offset 46,000 megawatt hours per year of their collective electrical needs with electricity created at a new solar power facility to be built in Farmington, Maine. The partnership represents the first collaborative purchase of New England-generated solar electricity by higher-education institutions.

Amherst, Bowdoin, Hampshire, Smith and Williams colleges are partnering with a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, a leading clean energy company, which will construct a utility-scale solar power facility that annually will create enough electricity to power about 5,000 New England homes.

$300,000 National Endowment for the Humanities Grant and Purchase of Adjacent Property Will Significantly Enhance the Celebrated Amherst, Mass., Museum’s Offerings 

(AMHERST, Mass., November 12, 2018) — The Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Mass., today announced a major upgrade and expansion made possible by a $300,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant, which will protect historic collections at the existing museum, and the purchase of an adjacent property that will eventually open even more of the poet’s Homestead to visitors. The Museum, which attracts an average of 15,000 visitors each year, holds the largest and most diverse collection of objects related to poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) and her family, illustrating important themes in 19th century social and cultural history such as gender and domesticity, changes in aesthetic tastes, class and social prominence, and civic engagement.

The Meiklejohn Fellows Program and the Charles Hamilton Houston Internship Program will increase student career opportunities.

(AMHERST, Mass., November 7, 2018) — Amherst College today announced that it has launched two new, innovative programs as a part of its rapidly modernizing and expanding Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning: The Meiklejohn Fellows Program and The Charles Hamilton Houston Internship Program. These initiatives will significantly expand the opportunities for summer internships, research positions and other experiential offerings for Amherst students to help prepare them for post-graduation careers and endeavors. 

(AMHERST, Mass., November 5, 2018) — The Common, the award-winning literary journal based at Amherst College, has received a $50,000 gift from Sally Wood, whose daughter and late husband attended Amherst. The gift supports student interns who show exceptional editorial promise and leadership skills. The students funded through this gift—one per year for four years—will be known as the Thomas E. Wood ’61 Fellows, in honor of the donor’s late husband, an English major, avid reader, and gifted writer and poet.

(AMHERST, Mass., September 10, 2018) — Amherst College has received a gift of $50 million by an anonymous donor as part of its comprehensive campaign, Promise: The Campaign for Amherst’s Third Century. This gift, along with a $100 million gift from an anonymous alumnus announced at the campaign’s launch in April, has provided a strong base for the College’s goal of raising $625 million over the next five years.

“The extraordinary generosity of our donors makes it possible for this gem of a College to provide students with the best possible education, one that has close colloquy between faculty with students at its heart,” said Amherst President Biddy Martin. “The priorities of our Promise campaign are straightforward and focused on the fundamentals of great education—a faculty of distinguished scholars who treat teaching as a calling, financial aid that allows us to enroll promising students regardless of means, curricular and pedagogical experimentation, new approaches to career exploration, and more creative ways of building and enjoying community. This generous gift will ensure that we can continue to develop independent, versatile, and creative thinkers.”

(AMHERST, Mass., August 27, 2018) — Amherst College today announced that, in keeping with a decision made by the board of trustees in 2016, the Lord Jeffery Inn will become the Inn on Boltwood shortly after the New Year. The new name of the property highlights its location on Boltwood Avenue in Amherst, where it has been since its opening nearly a century ago. Although the avenue is only a quarter of a mile long, it directly connects Main Street in downtown Amherst to the heart of the College’s campus and serves as a symbolic and a tangible connection between town and college. The Inn’s full-service restaurant has been named 30Boltwood since 2012 when it opened.

(AMHERST, Mass., July 30, 2018) — The Mead Art Museum at Amherst College has acquired The American Library Collection (Activists), a large-scale installation piece by the Britain-born, Nigeria-raised artist Yinka Shonibare MBE. Consisting of 234 books wrapped in Shonibare’s signature Dutch wax print fabric, each book holds the name of a first or second generation American “activist” writer inscribed on its spine in gold foil. This is the first artwork by Shonibare in the Mead’s collection; it will be on view at the Museum beginning October 30, 2018.

(AMHERST, Mass., June 26, 2018) — The Mead Art Museum at Amherst College has appointed Emily Potter-Ndiaye to the position of head of education and Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programs, effective Aug. 20, 2018. In her role, Potter-Ndiaye will promote primary research with the museum’s collections to faculty and students across disciplines as an integral part of the liberal arts educational experience at Amherst College — and a growing area of activity for the Mead, which has expanded its collaborations with faculty, staff and students over the past three years.