A Compilation of Recent Remarks Made at Amherst
"On this shockingly sad day, I would like us all to begin with a few moments of silence, if you will."
—President Tom Gerety, Opening an all-college convocation. LeFrak Gymnasium, September 11, 2001
"All of a sudden you feel attacked. It's horrible, because it doesn't let you grieve"
—Sahar Siddiqui '02, co-chair of Noor, the Muslim students' organization, reporting that her mosque in Washington, D.C., had been vandalized. At a campus teach-in Cole Assembly Room, October 3, 2001
"Getting rid of an Afghan government is not the most difficult thing in the world. The Soviets got rid of four. The hard part starts after the Taliban is overthrown. A stable government—that's a very hard thing to get right"
—Journalist Robert D. Kaplan, speaking on "Security Challenges for a New Age." Merrill Lecture Hall I, October 15, 2001
"What I learned more than anything else at Amherst is the inquiring spirit that you ask questions . . . . This spirit of questioning authority is at the heart of the liberal arts education and is also at the heart of democracy."
—Economist Joseph Stiglitz '64, who had received a Nobel Prize the previous week. In a campus talk as the college's McCloy Lecturer, October 17, 2001
"I rank many 'New Agers' pretty high on a scale of know-nothingism."
—Ian Hacking, University Professor in Philosophy at the University of Toronto, Lecturing at Amherst on "'True,'Values, and the Sciences," October 4, 2001