Amherst College
EN-5: Civic Engagement

The Amherst College president has made Serving the Greater Good one of his presidential priorities - https://www.amherst.edu/about/president-college-leadership/presidential-priorities

The Amherst College community is dedicated to building and promoting a culture that links the Amherst experience to a lifetime of advancing democratic principles and contributing to society beyond our campus. We are working together to build a community that explicitly prepares our students to work for the greater good in their professional and personal endeavors. The college has an entire center, The Center for Community Engagement (CCE), dedicated to encouraging and supporting students to embrace the value of community and civic engagement as part of our shared commitment to the greater good.

The CCE together with a number of other campus offices offers a large number of programs and opportunities for student civic engagement including:

• Every student athlete (roughly 35% of the campus student population) conducts community service as part of their team obligation. The program is coordinated among the coaches, athletic program, and the CCE.

• The CCE supports and helps coordinate community service, learning, and curricular engagement and opportunities for faculty and their courses. The CCE provides funding to help support these engagements and course integration.

• The CCE also helps coordinate community volunteer opportunities for students.

• The Office of Residential Engagement and Wellbeing helps support and coordinate community volunteer, engagement, and service efforts among student organizations. There are a number of student organizations that include a community component including: The Sustainable Ocean Alliance, The Food Justice Alliance, The Environmental Justice Alliance, A Better Chance Tutoring, Amherst College Habitat for Humanity, Amherst Homeless Connect, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Partners for Animal Welfare, Project Salud, Reproductive Justice Alliance, Students for Affordable Housing, and the Sustainable Solutions Lab.

On the 2024 Campus Sustainability Survey, 54% of students reported performing or participating in at least one of the following:

• Community service - refers to uncompensated work performed for the benefit and betterment of a community

• Other civic engagement programs on campus (e.g., AC Votes, Amherst Environmental Justice Alliance, Reproductive Justice Alliance)

Amherst College has had a long standing interest and participatory role in the local and regional policies affecting our community around sustainability issues like land conservation, waste, affordable housing, public access, goods, and resources. The college recently made a sizable gift to support a number of community assets and initiatives including the local public library, regional hospital, and town arts center.

Amherst College Makes $1.325 Million Initial Commitment to Amherst Local Community, Including a $1 Million Gift to Jones Library Building Project, as Well as Support of Cooley Dickinson Hospital and the Drake Arts Center

Ana Devlin Gauthier, who is the college’s Learning and Development Facilitator, serves on the Town Council of Amherst, MA, where she is an advocate for sustainable policies and the development of renewable energy, affordable housing, and a carbon neutral school. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL88jEd1y2k

There are also a number of faculty who have conducted research and contributed to regional sustainability policies (particularly around land conservation) and served on the town’s Climate Action Committees:

Katharine (Kate) Sims is a Professor in the Economics and Environmental Studies Departments at Amherst College. She studies how policies simultaneously affect environmental protection and economic development and how changes in policy design can improve the balance between multiple social goals. Her recent publications include:

• Katharine Sims. (2023) “Towards Equity in Land Protection.” Agricultural and Resource Economics Review. Vol 52, p. 201-230.  

• Alexey Kalinin, Katharine Sims, Jonathan Thompson and Spencer Meyer (2023) “Does land conservation raise taxes? Evidence from New England cities and towns” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. Vol 119, 102782.  

• Katharine R.E. Sims, Lucy G. Lee, Neenah Estrella-Luna, Margot Lurie, and Jonathan R. Thompson. (2022) “Environmental justice criteria for new land protection can inform efforts to address disparities in access to nearby open space.” Environmental Research Letters, 17, 064014. 

Ashwin Ravikumar, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, served on the Town of Amherst’s Energy and Climate Action Committee and played a leading role in the development of the town’s Climate Action Plan. 

Jessica Reyes, Willard Long Thorp Professor of Economics, is on the Steering Committee for developing the Navigation Guide Evidence-to-Decision Framework in Environmental Health, Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at the University of California, San Francisco.

• Development of the Navigation Guide Evidence-to-Decision Framework for Environmental Health | Environmental Health Perspectives | Vol. 2022, No. 1.

• “Development of the Navigation Guide Evidence-to-Decision Framework for Environmental Health,” with M. Aung, N. Chartres, S. Norris, C. Cooper, L. Bero, D. Payne-Sturges, R. Chou, W. Wagner, T. Woodruff. In submission Fall 2023. 

Katharine (Kate) Sims is a Professor in the Economics and Environmental Studies Departments at Amherst College. She studies how policies simultaneously affect environmental protection and economic development and how changes in policy design can improve the balance between multiple social goals. Recent publications:

• Audrey Cheng, Katharine Sims, and Yuanyuan Yi. (2023) “Economic development and conservation impacts of China’s Nature Reserves.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. Vol 121, 2023, 10284  

• Jennifer Alix-Garcia, Katharine R.E. Sims and Laura Costica. (2021) “Better to be indirect? Testing the accuracy and cost-savings of indirect surveys” World Development, 142, 105419.  

• Paulo Quadri Barba, Katharine R.E. Sims, Adam Millard-Ball. (2021) “Using cultural heritage sites in Mexico to understand the poverty alleviation impacts of protected areas” Conservation Science and Practice, 2021; e339.  

Amherst College filed an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court of the United States in support of Harvard College and the University of North Carolina and the legality of a “race-conscious” admissions process. In doing so, Amherst reinforced its steadfast commitment to the educational benefits of diversity and the inclusion of race as one component of many in its holistic consideration of each admission application.

Amherst initiated and coordinated the brief, which details the “compelling interest” of a racially diverse student body for liberal arts colleges, consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision in the landmark Grutter v. Bollinger case nearly 20 years ago. Thirty-two peer institutions joined Amherst as signatories to the brief.