Amherst In The 'Cac Opinion The 'Cac

When School Ends….

Okay. I’m going to try and not sound like a whiney kid – but this is absolutely ridiculous. Amherst College is struggletown when it comes to the end of the year. Students stay after finals in order to work Commencement and Reunion, helping the grounds crew, the facilities dorm clean-up, in the Library, in the Admissions Office, for the Student Newspaper, etc. There are also some athletes here still competing. I happen to fall under both categories, so I am pretty much set – I got assigned a room 3 days before I had to move (through my job), I have 3 meals a day (through athletics), and I generally know what’s going on. For anyone who is in only one or the other category (worker vs. athlete), some things aren’t quite so cut and dry. All of the track athletes who are not working were told they were supposed to move out today – it is Monday evening at 9:30pm and they still have not been assigned new rooms. One of my friends who is only working found out yesterday when he went to the dining hall that you only get meals (through vouchers) the days you work – no one had told him this – and only two at that. Oh, and if you happen to live in the dorms they use to house workers, you may have to move to a different dorm for athletes, where some workers were moved from to move in your room. Lots of switching around, lots of senseless chaos.

Also I should mention that if you call the Dean of Residential Life or try to figure out what’s going on, they either get mad at you or tell you it’s someone else’s job and that they have no control of your situation (which has to do with Residential Life).

Essentially, these problems aren’t that huge of a deal. There are much worse things in the world.  But if you’re trying to deal with moving around all your stuff on a rainy day, or if you don’t have extra money for meals, or if you become uncomfortable when you have no idea what’s going on (like I do) – this is all just a logistical nightmare that could be avoided year after year (since it’s like this EVERY YEAR).

It’s a fairly easy solution. Amherst Reslife: get a spread sheet to simply organize housing, keep the workers’ cards active along with the athletes to avoid meal confusion, and just get your shit together. You do a pretty good job throughout the year – just because school’s out doesn’t mean you have to stop using your brains.