English 350: Rhetorics of Place

By Julia Basal, Mia Dilluvio, Amanda Lavelle, Emily Mitchell, and Noah Robbins.

Introduction

Being students who attend UMass-Amherst, we noticed the varying disconnect between the residents and students, and we wanted to explore this further. The presence of UMass students is becoming stronger than the presence of Amherst residents due to the huge student population, and this can affect the town in both negative and positive ways. We decided to concentrate on these issues: the University expanding, the increase in students, and the increase in violation in crimes, specifically over the past four years. We also looked at how the students give back to the community through outreach, how students affect local business, and what life is like when a majority of the student population goes home for the summer through a personal account. By examining these issues we are attempting to better understand the dynamic between University students and the town of Amherst.

Now and Then: The Expansion of the University of Massachusetts

By Emily Mitchell

When the college that is today the University of Massachusetts, was founded in 1863 it was made up of four faculty members, four buildings, 56 students, and a curriculum that mainly focused on agriculture, sciences, and farming[1]. It was isolated and surrounded by farmlands. The population was sparse and the valley had not yet been carved into. The school became the Massachusetts State College in 1931 in order to broaden the variety of curriculum offered. In 1947 the schools name was finally changed to the name we know it as today, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst[2]. The University began with 310 rural acres and today has expanded to 1,450 acres expanding into both the town of Amherst and Hadley[3].

It’s almost impossible to imagine the University of Massachusetts campus the way it was when it first began as an agricultural college in the 1860’s. Without hoards of students going from class to class, bicycles, walkers, and skateboards congesting the pathways. The horizon would not seem the same to us without the library or the other new buildings being built before our eyes every day. While I sit in classrooms in Bartlett my gaze is often times distracted by orange clad construction workers defying gravity.

With a student body of more than 20,000 students the University shows no signs of scaling down. Each class has more applicants and more students than the year before. The campus is growing more and more. Space is disappearing and the arms of the University will have no choice to reach out, farther into the town of Amherst.

The history of the town of Amherst and the University are deeply intertwined but there was a time when the town was here and there was no college. Although Amherst and UMass are often synonymous, they two separate entities with two separate stories. The land that the town was built on was bought from three Indians in 1658[4]. It wasn’t until 1727 that the first settlement was built on it and it was given its township in 1759[5]. The town had been completely set up for over a hundred years before the land was given in order to set up the University. Other schools border the town as well, the closest being Amherst College, a prestigious school that is almost as old as the town itself and is situated in the town’s center.

The town is inundated with students. With a college degree becoming increasingly necessary to enter the work force more students are sure to enroll. With the growth of the school’s student population will come inevitably come the growth of facilities, faculties, and land. Within its lifespan UMass Amherst’s campus has grown to more than four times its original size. This continuing expansion may cause issues in the future. Although in some ways the school is beneficial to the community, the community can also be disapproving and resentful of the student population.

Cambridge, Massachusetts could be an example of what Amherst might be if the University and other surrounding schools continue to grow at the same pace. Anyone who has been to Harvard Square is probably aware of the presence of Harvard University at its heart. When I myself have visited and used the facilities of Harvard University I was surprised and annoyed at how difficult it is to simply enter the library without being trampled by crowds of tourists from all over the world. And this overcrowding is not only a problem on campus grounds. All of Cambridge seems to be congested because of the allure of Harvard.

Both UMass and Harvard are older institutions (although Harvard’s reputation is slightly more world renowned). Both have large campuses in areas that are already heavy in universities and colleges. In recent years community members have lashed out at Harvard and its vague plans to expand beyond its dominion over Harvard Square and Cambridge, into other areas such as Allston[6]. Community members feel that the University is making the area overpopulated and over developed.  Harvard seems to be unconcerned with the well-being of the community and more concerned with gaining more property in the Cambridge area. When looking at a map of the city Harvard takes up a frighteningly large portion of Cambridge, bigger than other colleges such as Boston University, Boston College, and MIT.

Although UMass is not currently in this situation (the area is pretty well supplied with green space) this could cause a problem in the future. More and more students will arrive pushing the townspeople away and out of the community they have carved for themselves. One warning sign of this is the lack of housing on campus. Freshman are forced to triple up oftentimes while upper classman are given such low priority they are forced to move off campus and into areas beyond such as Amherst, Hadley, and Belchertown. If the school keeps growing at this rate soon all of the available housing in the area will be inhabited not by families and professionals but students.

When housing begins to cater towards students and not working adults, the standards and prices of housing tend to change drastically. The kind of apartment I’m willing to live in is very different than the kind of apartment or house a non-student is willing to live in. We’re all familiar with the woes of college apartments. Trash piles up, your roommate always says they’ll do the dishes when they get back, and where did that weird green stain on the living room wall even come from? Landlords both quake in fear and greedily count their money when they see college students willing to rent. Because of an apartment’s location to campus and the bus route, a landlord can basically name any price and someone is willing to pay it. This increase in rent prices and decrease in quality of living will inevitably lead to people looking elsewhere to live. Eventually solely students, professors, and scholars of the Five Colleges will populate the entire area. Every house on the market will be bought, not by new families, but by landlords looking to make a profit.

My first year off campus I was naïve and unaccustomed to renting. Our landlord was a recluse who owned a large portion of North Amherst. She did not answer her phone. She would return calls, at the earliest, two weeks after the fact. She promised to have new carpets in all of the rooms, none of which appeared. The bathtub stopped draining. The toilet stopped flushing. The roof was off limits, because it had recently caved in. There was a hornet’s nest in the attic. A family of skunks inhabited the dumpster. The list goes on. No landlord would be able to get away with these kinds of things if the location wasn’t less than a mile away from the University and there wasn’t a bus stop three steps outside the front door.

Today my living situation is very much improved but only because I live more than three miles away from campus and a ten-minute walk from the nearest bus stop.

With the surplus of students there are some benefits but there are negatives. As students have the need to spread further and further out into the valley more parties will happen, more damage to property, etc. Most of these actions the average person over twenty-two does not want to deal with. As students merge into areas that once were exclusively non-student housing there may be a backlash from the community. Only time will tell how the town and its citizens and the University and its students will handle the future encroachment.

With or Without

By Noah Robbins

After a summer of living in tranquility and summer peace, a bomb was dropped on Amherst. When it exploded, it sent shrapnel made up of about twenty thousand party-crazed college students scattered across town. The damage was catastrophic, with hustling and bustling youthful people descending upon the streets and every establishment of the expansive farm town. The peace and serenity that had enveloped the valley for the last three months had been shattered in the matter of a weekend. The school year was upon us, but where had the summer gone?

The summer began as abruptly as it ended. The rat race of the school year had become eternally time consuming, up until the very last day. Then, POOF, like that, twenty thousand lively young bodies left town, disappeared into thin air like they had never been there at all. When they leave the well-known college town of Amherst, Massachusetts becomes something completely different. It downsizes itself into a small dreamy summer town where you are most likely going to see a happy, familiar face wherever you go. There is no fear of running down hoards of scantily dressed young girls on the side of the road at night. There are no lines, no waits, no unnecessary yelling, and no parties being busted up before two A.M. There is just the select amount of brave young students who have decided to make it year round at college instead of returning to their homestead. Instead of dominating the local population like they do during the school year, the youth melt into the population, taking up jobs and becoming a productive member of the town.

After living in Northampton for my first year at UMASS, my roommates and I moved into a quaint, dirty, old house in North Amherst at the beginning of June. Complete with a porch, an open yard with a field across the street, a Market two houses over, and Puffers pond only a five-minute walk through the woods, we were set for the summer. We were indifferent to the seemingly century old house, complete with a family of moles occupying the basement, and an endless amounts of dust. Only two miles away from the big red brick city that is campus, with the lack of students, we felt we were a good thirty miles away, held up somewhere in the woods.

It being only my first full summer in Amherst I was unsure of the social opportunities to be afforded to me. Being a transfer student as a junior had limited me to a smaller group of friends than I was used to, most of which returned home for the summer. The summer started slow, with not many places to go and a seemingly endless amount of time ahead of myself. Without a set schedule of classes, and less work to be done, my social skills became lethargic and rusty without the constant expectation of social interaction. Outside of my roommates, my neighbors, my cat, my girlfriend, and my porch, I had temporarily retired my outgoing social skills. After a few weeks of familiarity I grew restless, and delved deep into the culture of a summer in Amherst, Massachusetts.

It started with my walks in the woods. Puffers Pond is better known to the average UMASS student as the little pond where people go to get trashed, and jump off rocks when the spring arrives. During the summer the Pond serves as a relaxing gathering point for the local community, where families and working students alike come to enjoy their summer days. A week or two into living in my new home I discovered that across the street and down two houses towards the train track was an outlet to the Robert Frost trails that run through the Amherst woods. I began to venture the trail daily with one person or another, always discovering some new path, or private inlet to the river that we would claim as our own beach. The paths eventually lead to the man made beach at Puffer’s pond, where our walks would often reach their pinnacle. I slowly began to recognize the families and other beach-goers that were there regularly, exchanging smiles and waves as we became familiar with each other’s faces reflecting in the warm summer sun. The families seemed to accept the limited student presence with ease, unlike the news articles and complaints that come during the school year. The beach was most often more populated by the locals than inebriated students, leaving the beach clean, quiet, and comfortable. Unlike the school year, where students mercilessly take advantage of the pond, there is an understanding between the locals and the remaining youth of respect. This understanding expands far past the pond during the summer.

My social life began to reflect my ventures in the woods. As I discovered new wooded paths, I discovered new friends, and social paths. My new neighbors soon became my roommates as a result of the conjoining door to our two-family house. With a solid base of friends we started to venture out to the bars and whatever random party one of us had heard of.

The bars, like the town as a whole, were a completely different scene during the summer. The usual crowds of muscle-bound bro’s and less than classily dressed ladies that would create untoward lines during the school year were no where to be found. Instead of the usual struggle to get the bartenders attention, their eyes would catch yours. The music still played as loud in the background but because of the lesser amount of screeching girls and hollering guys, conversation could be had at a reasonable level. As avid people watchers, my girlfriend and I found that the back porch at Stackers, was a pleasant place to sit out in the summer nights warmth. Slowly sipping on a pitcher of beer or whatever classy lady drink she chose that night, intermittently smoking, we would make conversation with the random groups of students enduring the summer as we were.  As we more regularly frequented the watering holes in the center of town the groups of faces became recognizable. The bouncers would replace checking my I.D with a hand slapping and a how-ya-doing, that would be accompanied by three or four more of those when you saw the same people you had lost your way with the night before, and the one before that.

Like the bars, the parties were also far more of a pleasant experience than they were doing the school year. Instead of having to stuff yourself into a hot, sweaty basement with crowds of people you did not know, you could mingle openly with strangers or friends, out in the warm summer night. As a result of the more open nature of parties, the ruckus, and noise were in turn toned down to a respectful level. Instead of the parties being broke up by the police force by neighbors request, they would persist late into the night with little evidence of police interruption. By allowing the parties to exist peacefully, and appropriately the police put it in the hands of the partygoers to make mature decisions, such as driving home sober. During the school year, specifically the first month of each semester, the police come out in force on weekend nights, look to keep order amongst the thousands of inebriated youth, no matter the infraction. When it comes time for the mass exodus of students, the town is allowed to take a breath, and accept the remaining youth as mature members of their community.

Despite the lack of immediate daily responsibilities I would usually awake well before my often-aching head would please. The sun would come calling through my curtains with whispers of adventure, and the urges of youthful summer freedom. To clear my head of the previous nights raucous I would stumble out onto the porch for a morning breath and then out into the street, and two doors down to my savior, Cushman’s Market.

Located at the top of Pine Street in the North Amherst community of Cushman is one of the many hidden gems of the town.  Quietly placed in a neighborhood of houses, and adjacent to the train track the market is locally owned, supplied, employed, and patronized. During the school year only a few lucky students know of its existence so it remains mostly filled with locals. Living two houses over I was one of those few and would make my way over for a nicely brewed coffee accompanied by a muffin or bacon filled sandwich every morning. I grew familiar with the baristas at the café, whom of similar age, I would also often see around town, whether at social gatherings or other businesses. Apart from my daily patronage the families living in North Amherst fuel the Market. On a summer weekend morning the café and outdoor patio would be filled with parents and their children that had deliberately made the quiet, liberal community of Cushman’s their home. Walking into the café every morning I felt welcomed by the small community, as they seemed to come from a similar perspective to my own.

I built a similar rapport with other restaurants in Amherst over the summer, but unlike Cushman’s, the school year took those away. On a lazy summer night when looking for something inexpensive, but filling I would make my way to the local burger joint, White Hut. By late July I would exchange hellos with the manager and his only question when taking my order would be what kind of shake I wanted. My friends began to lament my favoring of the greasy restaurant, claiming it would be the doom of me someday. I did not heed their advice, only choosing to notice the easy, fulfilling manner of the food. Once the school year started the mass of students had the same thought as me and I just became another hungry face to new employees.

Whenever I drove somewhere in Amherst during the summer I would make my best effort to avoid the barren campus. In fear of thinking about writing papers and taking tests I would take the long stretching back roads. In spite of my efforts I still found myself amongst the brick buildings that form the massive campus of UMASS. When I would make my way through the campus it would be surprisingly delightful to see it void of thousands of busy people. You could navigate your car down North Pleasant in the middle of campus without having to break at every single crosswalk. Walking around the campus, the summer air removed the stressful tension that fogs up the air during the semester. During the summer the UMASS campus becomes a well-kept ghost town, with green fields in the shadows of the mostly empty buildings.

The absence of the student population was also obvious in the middle of town, for better or worse. The usual struggle to find parking and then a not too busy restaurant that I often encounter during the school year was just the opposite. Instead parking was ample and the restaurants mostly empty. For me it was a delight but talking to the employees, often my age, restaurants and other small businesses that make up the middle of town, feel the absence in their pocket. My girlfriend, a waitress, found the absence of our peers to cause paying rent at the end of the month to be a stress. Since the school year has begun, she usually has her rent paid by the first week of the month.

As shown in this observation of Amherst the coming and going of the student population affects almost every part of the town. With the exodus of the majority of the students comes a calm to a usually bustling town. When classes disperse the town of Amherst becomes an incredibly peaceful place to live. Although the absence of the students makes the town a dream summer destination, the reality is that it depends on the youth. Since the beginning of its history Amherst has been a college town, and has forged itself into a recession proof town as a result. The people of Amherst realize the same thing as me, that my peers and I may be a hassle, but we breath life into the otherwise farming town.

Criminal Activity On and Off the College Campus

By Amanda Lavelle

In the summer of 2011, between the months of May and August, approximately 149 violations were reported in the UMass Amherst Clery Crime Log. In contrast, in the fall semester of the same year, between the months of September and December, approximately 655 violations were reported.[7] The statistics demonstrate that there is an overwhelming amount of campus violations when school is in session which could be attributed to the fact that there are about 21,812 undergraduate students on the UMass campus during the school year versus the amount of students who stay at or around the college during the summer. That is, the more students on campus, the more violations will occur. However, the staggering number is unacceptable and action needs to be taken in order for the number of violations to be reduced; not only for the welfare and reputation of UMass, but also for the town of Amherst.

The top three crimes reported in the monthly Clery Crime Log include disorderly conduct (i.e. “disturbing the peace,” loitering, making unreasonable noise, etc.), larceny and liquor law violations.[8] The problem with the number of violations that occur on the UMass campus may be related to the estranged relationship between the UMass police and the students. Generally speaking, teenagers and young adults are said to have “no respect for authority.” This saying rings true for students who choose to violate the rules and regulations of UMass policies. The UMass Amherst Police Department (UMPD) is a full service police department with 62 sworn officers who have full authority to enforce the laws of the Commonwealth.[9]

The sight of a UMass police officer or even an officer’s car can trigger a variety of feelings in a college student: fear, disgust, respect, safety, etc. The first two feelings may be linked to how the officers respond to UMass “riots” and/or parties. During a riot, officers wearing protective masks often ride up on their police horses as a way to control a crowd. Others use smoke bombs to try and disperse the crowd. The way the UMass police are portrayed in this sense makes them seem more like the bad guys instead of the good guys.

In the fall of 2011, I had the unfortunate experience of being pulled over by a UMass police officer. As I was waiting in my car for the officer to come over, a student walking by made a fist in the air and shouted “Yeah!” as if I was purposefully breaking the law to irritate the officer. The officer asked me if I knew why he had pulled me over and I answered that it was because I went through a yellow light. He informed me that I had gone through a red light at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Commonwealth Avenue. When I repeated that the light had been yellow as I went through it, he responded that he had me on video going through the red light. I told him that the lights at that particular intersection only stay green long enough for three cars to go through. He was somewhat friendly about the whole incident so I was surprised when he gave me a ticket and said he was being nice since he reduced the fine from $50 to $30. I appealed the fine and a few weeks later had to go to the Hampshire District Court to make my case for why I should not have been fined. I actually didn’t have to make a case because my dad, who is a police officer, made some calls to officers in that district, but I still had to go to the court. As I was waiting to be called in I noticed about 20 college- aged looking people in the waiting area. A while later, a man came out of a room and said, “Everyone here with a UMass car violation, come through here.” I was astonished when I saw that everyone in the waiting area, including myself, stood up and walked into the other room. I think that the UMass Police Department may have taken mine and other students’ statements into account about the intersection lights because a year later in the fall of 2012, the light stays green long enough for at least six cars to pass through.

A way to reduce the number of violations that occur on the UMass campus is to mend the relationship between student and officer. This may be possible by implementing a program designed specifically for UMass police and students to discuss what is and what is not working about the violations and punishments regarding school police. The program would help the police understand the students and vice versa. Also, the overall number of violations reported in the Clery Crime Log may not even be accurate. Evidence of this was suggested by the staff who were compiling the 2011 statistics and noticed a significant drop in Liquor Referrals from the previous two years. They found that the difference was due to improved software capable of compiling Clery data in a more accurate manner, staff turnover, enhanced Clery training for staff and over reporting of data in previous years.[10] Therefore, there may be less on campus violations if improvements in Clery software and training continue.

In addition to the on campus violations are crimes that occur off campus, most of which are noise violations. The way that the Amherst Police Department deals with noise complaints is through the Unlawful Noise By-law which results in a verbal warning, $300 civil infraction (before May 2010, a first offense was $100) or arrest (without a warrant). The law further states that if the person responsible for the excessive, unnecessary or unusually loud noise cannot be determined, the owner, lessee or occupant of the property will be charged.[11] Captain Chris Pronovost of the Amherst Police Department stated in a 2011 Daily Collegian article that there have been about 200 to 300 incidents a year related to unlawful noise.[12]Many students feel that this by-law targets them in particular while Amherst residents believe that the bylaw is necessary.

Similar to the increase of on campus violations in the fall, is the increase of off campus violations, many of which are noise complaints. During the first full weekend (September 6-7) of the 2012 fall semester, Amherst police officers responded to 31 noise complaints, which resulted in 22 arrests and 46 summonses to court for alcohol- and noise-related offenses. In a Daily Collegian article about the weekend of violations, Sargent Todd Lang said, “This was par for the course for this time of year” and “There was nothing too above normal.”[13] This statement is not only embarrassing for the UMass community, but it also shows that the Amherst police expect these events to happen and are not surprised when they do occur.

In order for a large college campus community and relatively small town to coexist peacefully, there needs to be an understanding between the two. Students who live off campus should be aware of their surroundings and respect those living around them. However, Amherst residents should take into account that they live in a college town consisting of two colleges, UMass and Amherst College, and the former’s residential students make up about of third (approximately 12,500) of the town’s population of 37,819. One way that to try and mend the relationship between the UMass off campus community with the Amherst community is by having students attend the Annual and Special Town Meetings. Students would be able to voice their opinion on the Unlawful Noise By-law and other by-laws in an appropriate manner. This would be a way to have students who consider themselves residents of Amherst actually be a part of the town’s community rather than a separate entity. Hopefully, the new bond between students and residents would help reduce the number of violations that occur throughout the school year.

Student Outreach in Amherst and Mending Relationships

By Mia Dilluvio

Amherst is located in the west of Massachusetts in Hampshire County. It is a rural location, has a quaint center of town and home to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst College and Hampshire College. Over Labor Day weekend, chaos emerges onto the quiet town. Restaurants have a two-hour wait, the stores on route 9 are ransacked and the traffic coming in and out of town is impossible. It’s move-in day and classes will be back in session for the fall semester. The peaceful summer is instantly forgotten.

From what I can gather, it seems as though the town of Amherst existence relies on the students who attend any of the three schools. This fall, the population increased by 29,944[14] people. Looking around the town, seeing the amount of bars, coffee shops and eateries, it seems as though Amherst is catering to the students in the area. However, do the students give back to Amherst through means of community outreach? After all, there are plenty of opportunities to repair Amherst’s weaknesses. For example, there is a large homeless population. Many times the men and women with out a home must ride the PVTA buses back and forth in order to stay warm during the harsh New England winter. Another example is Puffer’s Pond, located in north Amherst. After a very warm spring or fall day, the pond and the surrounding area is in shambles, completely covered with beer cans and other garbage. These are just two of the many aspects of the community that need help.

As a student who attends the University of Massachusetts, I was aware that there were groups on campus that provided outreach to the community; some of these even include classes. For instance, I am currently taking a Tutoring in Schools class that requires me to complete 70 hours of tutoring in a school and I receive one additional credit for doing so. Me and the other students taking the course are placed in various after school programs and schools in Amherst, as well as neighboring towns.

In addition to the courses that require community service, UMass also provides opportunities for extracurricular outreach. UMass’ CESL, Civic Engagement and Service Learning, is a large service organization that “promotes learning for life-long, engaged citizenship, partnering with communities on and off campus to work collectively for a more just society.”[15]  It has five focus areas: Equity in Education, Healthy Futures, Sustainable Communities and Technology for Justice. [16] Each of these areas contribute to the town of Amherst in some way, pointing to courses that a student can take, such as my tutoring in schools class, or even local outreach programs that operate outside of campus. These outreach programs include: The Boys and Girls Club, Everywoman’s Center, Los Amigos and Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity. UMass offers these programs so that students can deliberately make a difference in the community. While doing that, they are also creating positive relationships with community members of all ages, from children to the elderly. UMass graduate Lauren DuBois[17] made this connection through the Student Bridges Program, which is a service-learning course where she was a tutor and mentor in a school. Lauren was committed to this program from the beginning of her sophomore year until graduation. She said, “Service-learning is all about relationships. In the process of building those relationships one is also building a relationship with themselves and the world around them.”

At Hampshire College there seemed to be hardly any service groups at all, instead, the Hampshire community concentrates on providing service to their own students. One of the reasons could be that Hampshire College is a bit further from the other two colleges and the center of town. Having been to the college a few times, it is very small and secluded in the woods with only two main entrances, one off of 116 and the other off of West Bay Road. Due to its isolation, the college is less inclined to contribute to the town, thus are more able to focus on their eccentric lifestyle.

When comparing all of these schools, UMass provides Amherst with the most service. This could be attributed to the University’s massive population and funding. Therefore, more community service can be provided. However, due to the large student population, UMass students tend to be the perpetrators of a majority of criminal activity off campus. These include noise violations, vandalism, public disturbances, all of which disrupt the community (a more in depth analysis of the crime rate is discussed in Amanda Lavelle’s piece). The contribution to the town seem like they were for nothing when the previous mentioned activities are causing disruption. Thus, the relationship and interactions between the college students and Amherst residents are negative. For example, there is an Amherst resident who publishes the names, ages and towns of students who have been arrested online, publicly ridiculing them. Although this is an extreme case, one cannot overlook the fact that this man may not be the only one who is fed up with the behavior of college students in the area.

After finishing this research, I reflected upon what even more outreach could do. Could it potentially mend the strained ties between the residents and college students for good? Or, due to the weekly disruption of the citizen’s lives, would it merely be a temporary solution? It seems to me that there is only so much giving back the University can do to temporarily fix the relationship between the students and the residents of Amherst. At some point, it is going to have to come down to how the students and residents can live in harmony, and a majority of this responsibility will have to lie on the shoulders of the students. Often, students forget that Amherst, although a college town, isn’t merely there for their benefit. It is not a place to get drunk on the weekends and wreak havoc. What the residents are looking for is respect, and until that time comes, I feel as though that there will be no peaceful co-existence.

Students’ Positive Effects on Amherst Businesses

By Julia Basal

Though residents of Amherst may not be pleased with the crowding, noise, and sometimes even crime college students bring to the town, they perhaps might be thankful to know that it may just be college students who keep the town economically stable. It is often said that in the midst of a nation-wide recession, college towns are those most equipped to stay afloat.  Even with the US only slowly coming out of a recession, and still dealing with a high national unemployment rate and economic hardships, the number of college applicants is not going down, and in fact, in the case of UMass Amherst, applicants are increasing.  Students know that the best way to cope with the recession and lack of jobs is to get a college degree.  In 2011 UMass Amherst had a record number of applicants—32,564—and accepted its largest ever freshman class at 4,700 students.  This number is up by more than 200 students from 2010.[18]

With an increasing student population that makes up over half of the population of the town of Amherst (at 37,819)[19] comes increasing business in the town of Amherst.  The unemployment rate in Amherst is 4.8%, compared with 6.5% in the state of Massachusetts, and 7.9% in the United States as a whole.[20]  It appears that the reasoning behind this much lower unemployment rate in the town of Amherst has much to do with the very large student population, which also includes Amherst College’s population of 1,795[21] and Hampshire College’s population of 1,500.[22]

For instance, with the increasing number of students at UMass a growing number of students are forced to live off-campus, maintaining a booming real-estate business in the town of Amherst, especially within apartment complexes and homes for rent.  In the past five years, many houses have been sold and turned into rentals, according to Stephen Walczak, president of the Pioneer Valley Housing Association.[23] Considering roughly forty percent of UMass students live off-campus currently,[24] rental homes and apartments do quite well in Amherst.  Puffton Village, for example, is an extremely popular apartment complex for UMass students living off campus, as it is only a half-mile down the road from the UMass campus.  Puffton Village has 563 units and even with so many units there is only an average two-percent vacancy in Puffton.  The majority of renters are UMass students, and though most students head home for the summer, Puffton requires twelve month leases.  Students can sub-let their apartment over the summer, but if they cannot find any sub-letters they must continue paying rent throughout the summer, so Puffton does not lose any business over the summer months.[25]Even in tough economic times, housing is a necessity for college students, and with the incredibly large student population in Amherst, this helps to keep the town’s economy afloat.

Additionally, college students, especially those without a meal plan, need to eat.  This means creating ample business for local restaurants and grocery stores, so long as these businesses cater to college students’ likes and budgets.  Take Antonio’s Pizza in the center of Amherst on North Pleasant Street.  This pizzeria is known by many to have the best pizza in the area.  The pizzeria opened its doors in 1991, and business is still booming today.  Even when the restaurant first opens at ten o’ clock in the morning one can see simply from looking through the glass front of the shop that there are a good number of customers.  As the day goes on, business grows steadily, and in the last few hours before the 2AM closing time, as students pour out from the local bars, a line forms at Antonio’s that more often than not goes out the door.  Antonio’s does so well because the pizza is good, it is a quick and easy meal for college students to grab on the go, and the prices are relatively cheap at $3.40 a slice for specialty pizzas, and even less for a slice of cheese.  On Friday nights you can grab a slice of cheese for only one dollar from 11PM to 1AM.

Another huge source of wealth students bring to the town of Amherst is through the many bars scattered throughout town.  The cluster of bars of North Pleasant Street are packed every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, but the bars that appeal to college students—McMurphy’s, Stackers, and the Monkey Bar—are the ones that visibly do the best business, with lines on weekend nights often going out the door and far out onto the sidewalk.  Pitchers of beer at McMurphy’s run from $6 to $7.50, and pitchers of mixed drinks like Grateful Deads or Long Island Iced Teas are $15.  A pint of beer at Stackers pub is $4.00 while pitchers are $9.00.   Not only is the price right at these bars, but they both have casual, sports-bar type vibes inviting to college students.  The Monkey Bar, too, is packed with almost exclusively college students on weekend nights, playing loud hit music.

The High Horse, a bar which came into existence in December of 2011 is in a prime location on North Pleasant where ABC—A Brewing Company—used to be located before it moved.  The High Horse never has such long lines, however.  This is probably because the bar, though in a good location, is not conducive to college students’ budgets.  Food and drinks are pricier than other bars in town—mac n’ cheese for nine dollars, burgers for thirteen.  Most pints of beer are $6.50, with pitchers of beer priced at $15. And the menu even mocks other “college bars” in town as it reads, “Sorry no-Irish car bombs, long island iced teas, grateful dead I’m broke and on a mission to throw up on my roommate in the cab type drinks”.  But cost isn’t the only consideration, as other bars in Amherst such as Michael’s Billiards and the bar inside the Amherst VFW both offer cheap drinks as well, though they don’t have nearly the large crowds as the bars on North Pleasant as they are not in prime locations easily accessible by students living on or close to campus.

Local bookstores also do a booming business in Amherst.  Though UMass and Hampshire College have their own campus bookstores, many professors instead place their book orders at Amherst Books or Food for Thought Books, both in downtown Amherst.  Both bookstores typically sell textbooks for cheaper than the campus bookstores.  Food for Thought Books gives a 10% discount to professors who order books from them,[26] while Amherst Books gives a 20% discount to professors ordering books, as well as a 10% discount to all UMass, Amherst College, and Hampshire College students.[27]  But the best thing about these bookstores is that they are both locally and independently run, meaning that money spent at the bookstores goes back into the community of Amherst.  Food for Thought Books especially helps the town, as it is a non-profit business which donates all profits back to the community.  Considering the recent US economic recession, it would be very difficult for these local, independent bookstores to keep their doors open if it weren’t for the students and professors of local colleges buying books year after year. Additionally, coffee shops in town like Rao’s, Amherst Coffee, and the local Starbucks are the study spots for many UMass, Amherst College, and Hampshire College students, especially the ones that live off campus.  The Amherst Starbucks even stays open twenty-four hours during the colleges’ midterms and finals weeks, knowing that during those two weeks each semester students will be up all night studying—and drinking coffee.

Of course, as in any town, there have been quite a few businesses to go out over the years, most notably those businesses that are in close proximity to Antonio’s, as the pizzeria takes up most of the business in that section of North Pleasant Street.  For instance, what used to be a Ben and Jerry’s turned into a wrap sandwich shop called That’s A Wrap, which closed just this past year and is now a frozen yogurt place called FroyoWorld.  Amherst Creperie, which was only open for a year, closed this past year as well and is now a Cajun place called J. Gumbo’s.  There is a very high cost of renting in that space on North Pleasant Street, and for businesses to survive and make a profit, they must appeal especially to college students.  FroyoWorld seems to be doing well so far—perhaps this appeals more to college students than a Ben and Jerry’s as it is a slightly healthier option. That’s A Wrap probably didn’t do so well because of the close proximity to a Subway restaurant, a quick and cheap place for college students to eat.  But even though, as in any town, certain businesses in Amherst quickly go out, the ones that cater more specifically to college student’s tastes and budgets have continued to do well through the economic recession.  It is due in great part to college students that local businesses are able to remain open, thus creating more jobs and more money to give back to the community of Amherst.

Conclusion

Through our research we realized that the disconnect between the students and the local civilians is growing in some ways, while closing in others. While the connection is historically undeniable, the average member of the population does not often recognize the closeness of the communities. We believe for the gap to close and a more unified Amherst to exist it is up to us, the students, to proactively attain this. Through community outreach such as volunteering or even attending town meetings, we believe that the average UMASS student can bridge the gap. Amherst is a greatly unique college town, with its farm town appearance, serving backdrop to the massive intellectual population. The University and Amherst are separate, but we need to move toward becoming one. Both communities are intertwined and are continuing to grow together as they have been since the first building that was erected on campus.