2011: Summer

FEATURES

	A Conversation with the 19th President In a wide-ranging interview, Carolyn A. “Biddy” Martin talks about her background, her values and her goals. Interview by Emily Gold Boutilier
	A Matter of National Interest Amherst has stepped up efforts to find and accept talented low-income students from all over the world, including community college transfers and veterans. This push has resulted in noticeable changes to the student body—and has provided evidence that diversity breeds selectivity. By Emily Gold Boutilier. Student profiles by Roger M. Williams ’56
	Tailing Senator Coons If you’re trying to prove that you’re not just the lucky guy who beat a Sarah Palin wannabe for Joe Biden’s Senate seat, you have to work harder than anyone to stake out your territory and define your freshman term. By Sarah Auerbach ’96
	For the Rest of Her Life When newlywed Brock Safronoff ’97 died in the World Trade Center, his young widow felt as though she died, too. Ten years later, Tara Neelakantappa Safronoff ’97 is a profound example of the human capacity to heal. Plus: Remembering the three Amherst victims of Sept. 11, 2001. By Emily Gold Boutilier

departments

Letters
Physics and karma—A clue to the T. rex diet—Higher-ed politics—Kendra Stern ’11, Olympic hopeful—And more

College Row
World War II vets receive honorary B.A.s, President Marx gives his final speech, and more from Commencement 2011—When art is a bathtub wrapped in gauze—A new use for old add/drop forms—And more

Sports
Men’s tennis: New team on top—Men’s lacrosse: They weren’t supposed to be good.

Insights
Marsh Peters would like you to be on the Reunion panel. But first, he has to get something off his chest.
By Sarah Miller ’91

Amherst Creates
Nonfiction: Blair Kamin ’79, P’15 delivers a mixed verdict on 21st-century architecture—Comics: A thousand pages of Thor—Poetry: David Ferry ’46 wins $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize—What Director of Admission Katharine Fretwell ’81 is reading—And more

Visit
From King James to Charlie Brown

Lives of Consequence: An Update from Campus
A special supplement to Amherst magazine

Back Cover

Succession
“This is my last time in the chapel as president,” said Anthony W. Marx on June 16, when he welcomed Biddy Martin as the college’s next leader. Before Martin spoke at the podium in Johnson Chapel, Marx said the sign of a great institution is a succession “that finds, in this instance, an improvement on the 18th president to be the 19th.”

Photo by Samuel Masinter '04