Professor Hadley Arkes is looking at real estate in Malta:
After the election: I’ve been on the internet, looking at real estate in … Malta. Just think, a four-bedroom townhouse, near the new marina, in Zabbar, $350,000 USD (asking). Hmm. It is not only that the outcome of our election portends a moral disaster at several [...]

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Or, at least, their corporate merger code names are:
In the case of Yahoo’s merger talks with AOL, which are ongoing, the pair seem to be aiming for a tony image, using the names of two upscale institutions of higher education: Yale University and Amherst College.
Why? Obviously, the first letter of each school corresponds with the [...]

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Although some disgruntled Paulites may disagree with me, I’d like to encourage all local voters to excercise their civic duty today and get to the polls.  If you’re a student, your polling location is:
Bangs Community Center
70 Boltwood Walk
Good luck, and remember to vote!

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I’ve been getting behind lately, but I think a roundup of the last week or so is necessary.

President Marx sent out the campus-wide email and press statement:

College and university endowments across the country have been significantly affected by market volatility in recent weeks, and Amherst’s is no exception. Even with our relatively strong investment management, [...]

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So far, I’ve avoided any type of election analysis or opinion - that is not the place of this particular blog, after all - but I do feel compelled to make a note of one that could significantly impact the College.
Residents of the Town of Amherst may be aware of a competitive race for a seat on the Town Select Board. Four contenders are vying for the spot - a brief description of each can be found at the Amherst Bulletin.
Two particularly noteworthy candidates for the election are Aaron Hayden and Dave Keenen.

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In my last post, I linked to an Op-Ed by Amherst President Tony Marx in the LA Times.  In the piece, he argues against a proposed minimum spending rate on colleges’ endowment funds.  His points are especially compelling given the state of the market.  For the record, I stand in basic agreement with his reasoning.
However, [...]

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President Marx writes in the LA Times:
But if the state of the stock market is any indication, the era of hefty annual — or even positive — returns for college endowment funds is likely to be over, perhaps for quite some time. It’s a good thing that colleges have been allowed to tend to our [...]

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Some great investigative work by Jonathan “Thropedo” Thrope ‘10 in this week’s Student on Amherst’s endowment.  Our endowment has grown 4.6% from June 30, 2007 to June 30, 2008.  It’s a far cry from the obscene 27.8% return we took home last year, but considering the downturn of the economy it’s a good haul.  Of [...]

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There’s been a ton of activity on the blogosphere lately about Information Technology Director Peter Schilling’s newly created IT Index, posted at Academic Commons and blogged originally by The Chronicle of Higher Education.  There’s some pretty interesting information; 5 land lines left on campus, 14 desktop computers among the freshman class, more Macs than PCs [...]

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9:13 – Raj closes the forum, notes that we can continue to talk about this on the weekend, where “he’ll see [us] out there.”  Thanks, Raj.  We’re all done here.  Thanks to The Indicator, AmhPub, Raj, our panelists, and everyone who helped put this together.  Good night, Amherst.
9:11 — Carter wants the disciplinary referrals to [...]

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