Amherst College

The Amherst graduating class of 1850, including William Austin Dickinson (second row, far left), brother of poet Emily Dickinson

Main Quad

Fayerweather Hall

Frost Library

College Row, consisting of Williston, South, North, and Appleton Halls, with Johnson Chapel at center

Founded in 1821, Amherst College developed out of the secondary school Amherst Academy. The college was originally suggested as an alternative to Williams College, which was struggling to stay open. Although Williams survived, Amherst was formed and diverged into its own institution.[14]

In 1812, funds were raised in Amherst for a secondary school, Amherst Academy; it opened December 1814.[15] The academy incorporated in 1816.[16] The institution was named after the town, which in turn had been named after Jeffery, Lord Amherst, a veteran from the Seven Years' War and later commanding general of the British forces in North America. On November 18, 1817, a project was adopted at the Academy to raise funds for the free instruction of "indigent young men of promising talents and hopeful piety, who shall manifest a desire to obtain a liberal education with a sole view to the Christian ministry."[17] This required a substantial investment from benefactors.[14]

During the fundraising for the project, it became clear that without larger designs, it would be impossible to raise sufficient funds. This led the committee overseeing the project to conclude that a new institution should be created. On August 18, 1818, the Amherst Academy board of trustees accepted this conclusion and began building a new college.[14]

Moore, then President of Williams College, however, still believed that Williamstown was an unsuitable location for a college, and with the advent of Amherst College was elected its first president on May 8, 1821. At its opening, Amherst had forty-seven students. Fifteen of these had followed Moore from Williams College. Those fifteen represented about one-third of the whole number at Amherst, and about one-fifth of the whole number in the three classes to which they belonged in Williams College. President Moore died on June 29, 1823, and was replaced with a Williams College trustee, Heman Humphrey. Williams alumni are fond of an apocryphal story ascribing the removal of books from the Williams College library to Amherst College.[18] In 1995, Williams president Harry C. Payne declared the story false, but many still nurture the legend.[17]

Amherst grew quickly, and for two years in the mid-1830s it was the second largest college in the United States, second only to Yale. In 1835, Amherst attempted to create a course of study parallel to the classical liberal arts education. This parallel course focused less on Greek and Latin, instead focusing on English, French, Spanish, chemistry, economics, etc. The parallel course did not take hold, however, until the next century.[17]

Amherst was founded as a non-sectarian institution "for the classical education of indigent young men of piety and talents for the Christian ministry," (Tyler, A History of Amherst College). One of the hallmarks of the new college was its Charity Fund, an early form of financial aid that paid the tuition of poorer students.[19] Although officially non-denominational, the initial Amherst was considered a religiously conservative institution with a strong connection to Calvinism. As a result, there was considerable debate in the Massachusetts government over whether the new college should receive an official charter from the state. A charter was not granted until February 21, 1825,[19] as reflected on the Amherst seal.. Religious conservatism persisted at Amherst until the mid-nineteenth century: students who consumed alcohol or played cards were subject to expulsion, and there were a number of religious revivals at Amherst where mobs of righteous students would herd less religious students into the chapel and berate them for lack of piety.[19] Towards the end of the nineteenth century, however, the college began a transition towards secularism, culminating in the demolishing of the college church in 1949.[20]

Academic hoods in the United States are traditionally lined with the official colors of the school, in theory so watchers can tell where the hood wearer earned his or her degree. Amherst's hoods are purple (Williams' official color) with a white stripe or chevron, said to signify that Amherst was born of Williams. Amherst records one of the first uses of Latin honors of any American college, dating back to 1881.[21] The college was an all-male school until the late 1960s, when a few female students from nearby schools in the Five-College Consortium attended on an experimental basis. In October 1974, the faculty voted in favor of coeducation and in November 1974 the board of trustees voted to admit female students starting in the 1975-1976 school year. This was done while John William Ward served as President.[22] In 1975, nine women who were already attending classes as part of an inter-college exchange program were admitted as transfer students. In June 1976, they became the first female graduates of the college.[23]

The college established the Black Studies Department in 1969. In 1973, it launched the nation's first undergraduate neuroscience program. In 1983, it established a Department of Asian Languages and Literatures, which was later to become the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations.[24]

In 1984, on-campus fraternities were abolished. The former fraternity buildings, which were owned by the college, were converted into residence halls.[24] The Department of Women's and Gender Studies, which later became the Department of Sexuality, Women's, and Gender Studies, was established in 1987 and the Department of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought in 1993.[24]

In March 2013 the faculty adopted an open-access policy.[25]

1. Zephaniah Swift Moore, 1821–1823
2. Heman Humphrey, 1823–1845
3. Edward Hitchcock, 1845–1854
4. William Augustus Stearns, 1854–1876
5. Julius Hawley Seelye, 1876–1890
6. Merrill Edwards Gates, 1890–1899
7. George Harris, 1899–1912
8. Alexander Meiklejohn, 1912–1924
9. George Daniel Olds, 1924–1927
10. Arthur Stanley Pease, 1927–1932
11. Stanley King, 1932–1946
12. Charles Woolsey Cole, 1946–1960
13. Calvin Hastings Plimpton, 1960–1971
14. John William Ward, 1971–1979
15. Julian Gibbs, 1979–1983
16. G. Armour Craig, 1983–1984 (acting)
17. Peter Pouncey, 1984–1994
18. Tom Gerety, 1994–2003
19. Anthony Marx, 2003–2011
20. Carolyn "Biddy" Martin, 2011–

The writings of Amherst College political science Professor Hadley Arkes about homosexuality led to a dispute in 2013 over whether a college seeking to create a diverse, respectful academic community should speak out when a faculty member disparages community members or should instead remain silent as a way to protect academic freedom.[62] The issue arose when a group of alumni petitioned the college trustees and President Biddy Martin to "dissociate the institution" from Arkes's "divisive and destructive" views,[63] focusing particularly on his May 2013 comparison of homosexuality to bestiality, pedophilia and necrophilia.[64][65] The alumni said, "Amherst College cannot credibly maintain its professed commitment to be an inclusive community as long as it chooses to remain silent while a sitting professor disparages members of its community in media of worldwide circulation and accessibility."[63]

Martin disagreed, citing past debates over the college's position on the Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa—issues on which the college initially remained silent but eventually took a public position. In such times, she said, colleges should "avoid taking institutional positions on controversial political matters, except in extraordinary circumstances" and should simultaneously both "protect their communities from discrimination and disrespect" and "cherish a diversity of viewpoints."[66]

The Kirby Memorial Theater

Amherst is a member of the Five Colleges consortium, which allows its students to attend classes at four other Pioneer Valley institutions. These include Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In addition to the 850 courses available on campus, Amherst students have an additional 5,300 classes to consider through the Consortium (without paying additional tuition) and access to 8 million library volumes. The Five Colleges are geographically close to one another and are linked by buses that run between the campuses.[67]

The Five Colleges share resources and develop common academic programs. Museums10 is a consortium of local art, history and science museums. The Five College Dance Department is one of the largest in the nation.[68] The joint Astronomy department shares use of the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory, which contributed to work that won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics.[69]

The Five College Coastal and Marine Sciences Program offers an interdisciplinary curriculum to undergraduates in the Five Colleges.[70]

Amherst College is reducing its energy consumption through a computerized monitoring system for lighting and the use of an efficient cogeneration facility. The cogeneration facility features a gas turbine that generates electricity in addition to steam for heating the campus.[73] Amherst also operates a composting program, in which a portion of the food waste from dining halls is sent to a farmer in Vermont.[73]

In 2012, President Biddy Martin began a community-wide review of the sexual misconduct and disciplinary policies at the College.[81][82] This review was sparked by several factors, including a fraternity's T-shirt design that critics alleged was misogynist[83] and an essay by Angie Epifano published in The Amherst Student, wherein she accused the college of inappropriate handling of a case of sexual assault.[84] In January 2013, a college committee published a report noting Amherst's rate of sexual assault as similar to other colleges and universities, and making recommendations to address the problem.[85]

After a complaint was filed by Epifano and an anonymous former student in November 2013,[86] the US Department of Education opened an investigation into the college's handling of sexual violence and potential violations of Title IX. In May 2014, the Department of Education announced a list of 55 colleges and universities (including Amherst) currently under investigation.[87]

A report from Amherst College stated that 2009 to 2011, Amherst reported 35 instances of "forcible sex offenses", a term that encompasses rape, attempted rape, and lesser forms of sexual contact.[88]

The original unofficial mascot of Amherst College, Lord Jeffery Amherst, was a cause of concern in the Amherst community.[89] Many sought to separate the school from the problematic legacy of Lord Jeffery Amherst, in particular his advocacy of the use of biological warfare against Native Americans.[90]

In May 2014, after a wild moose found its way onto the Amherst College campus and into the backyard of the house of the college president,[91] students organized a Facebook campaign to change the mascot of the school to a moose.[92] The page grew rapidly in popularity, receiving over 900 "likes" in under two weeks,[92] and inspiring both a Twitter and Tumblr account for the newly proposed mascot. At the Commencement ceremony for the class of 2014, the moose mascot was mentioned by Biddy Martin in her address, and the Dining Hall served Moose Tracks ice cream in front of an ice sculpture of a moose.[93]

In February 2015, discussion of a mascot change continued when the editorial board of the Amherst Student, the college's official student-run newspaper, came out in favor of "the moose-scot".[92] In November 2015 the student body and the faculty overwhelmingly voted to vacate the mascot; the decision to drop the mascot was made official on January 26, 2016 after student anti-racism protests on campus.[94][95]

In April 2017, Amherst announced that their official mascot would be the Mammoth.[96][97] Mammoths beat the other finalists "Valley Hawks", "Purple and White", "Wolves", and "Fighting Poets" in a ranked-choice election process.[98] The Mammoth is linked to Amherst due to the long standing presence of a woolly mammoth skeleton on campus dating back to the 1920s excavation of the skeleton by an Amherst professor.