Eighty years ago this week, The Amherst Student reported on the beginning of "Amherst Books," a series of essay compilations published by the College discussing politics, education and American history.

The first in this series, Liberal College, was dubbed "the book [that] will be of great interest to all who are interested in cultural education." The book was a compilation of essays by President Meiklejohn, who analyzed the problems of the liberal arts college.

The article touted other books to be published, including Parties and Party Leaders by the late Professor Morse and The Life Indeed by the late Professor Genung.

All the books were bound in black cloth with a specially designed Amherst bookmark and title printed in gold, making them "a most attractive set of books."

1957

The Student reported an increase in pre-meds, pre-engineers and pre-science men 43 years ago. The number of science majors had been increasing steadily despite efforts of the admissions office to maintain a balance at the College.

In addition, the students intending to enter some field of science were not distributed equally between the departments. There was a notably large increase in the prospective majors in physics and biology, as opposed to a small increase in chemistry.

Only 20 percent of the Class of 1956 had indicated an interest in science, but the percentage rose to 38 percent for the Class of 1958. This increase was partly attributed to national publicity about the shortage of scientists and engineers in the working field.

The consequent increase in attractive job offers, combined with Amherst's excellent reputation for preparation for medical school, also fueled the increase in interest.

1975

A survey conducted in the spring of 1975 showed that a shocking 50 percent of students at Amherst and Williams Colleges cheated in their academic work. In addition, almost 75 percent of the students had first-hand knowledge of cheating on campus.

The biggest cheaters were science majors and students with the lowest grade point averages. Poll results disclosed that social science majors had observed the most cheating and that science majors aided cheaters the most.

The lowest of the low were the pre-meds, who had a cheating rate of 64 percent, which was 12 to 15 percent above the cheating rate for pre-law and pre-business students.

The cheating poll was taken jointly at Amherst and Williams after a previous poll had revealed that 42 percent of Amherst students cheated and that 67 percent of the students had first-hand knowledge of it, but that Williams had only half of Amherst's cheating rate.

The article reported that Amherst students primarily cheated because of pressure caused by workload, whereas Williams students, which the new poll revealed were twice as likely to cheat as Amherst students, cited the desire for good grades as their prime motive.