In addition to her work as a student, this resident of Jacksonville, Fla. has taken a leadership role in a number of campus organizations including The Spectator, the Hungry Newt, women's chorus, the Amherst College Republicans and the Student Committee for the American Founding.
Innocent spectator
"A dirty little secret of mine is that I signed up to work for both The Spectator and The Indicator as a freshman, but only wrote for [The Spectator] because they contacted me first," said Booher.
When she arrived at the College, The Spectator was a conservative magazine that had been recently re-founded by Ross Cohen '99, who served as editor-in-chief Booher's freshman year. "Ross Cohen was my mentor," she said.
"He was brilliant, funny and knew how and when to pick his battles. People either loved him or hated him, and he didn't really care which. He appreciated the utter un-seriousness of college-how meaningless the machinations of the SGO were, how naïve some of the students were and how hard people in the real world laughed at our righteous outrage about issues that we barely understood," she added. The description Booher gives of Cohen would be a fitting description of her own approach to life at the College.
Booher served as an assistant editor on The Spectator her freshman year and then rose to be editor-in-chief when she was a sophomore. The magazine became increasingly libertarian by Booher's junior year when she served again as the editor-in-chief. However, that year the publication suffered from a lack of interested writers and struggled to publish issues.
Booher took on an advisory role for The Spectator her senior year when Paul Warner '04 approached her with a desire to rekindle the magazine's conservative flame. Under Warner's leadership and Booher's guidance as editor emeritus, The Spectator has managed to rebuild a core of writers, editors and readers.
"I love and hate The Spectator. It brings out the best and worst in me, just like my columns in The Student," said Booher who is also a columnist for The Student.
"It irks me constantly that people who don't know me assume that I'm always bitchy and mean; that somehow I enjoy making people feel bad. People take things too personally-I try not to attack people, but their ideas," she said.
Conservative choralist
At the Senior Assembly last week, Booher received the Lincoln Lowell Russell Prize which is "awarded to the seniors who have done the most to foster the singing spirit at Amherst." Her dedication to improving the Women's Chorus and its presence on campus make her a model candidate for the accolade.
"For a long time we'd been the bastard child of the choral society, and treated as a joke by the other groups," said Booher.
Serving as president for two consecutive years, she helped director Mallorie Chernin to turn things around. "Mallorie cut the numbers and made the audition process stricter," said Booher explaining the turnaround.
In addition to working to improve the quality of the Women's Chorus, Booher strived to make it a little more fun. "It is because of Windy that the Women's Chorus has pajama nights and 'sheepy pants' jokes," said Chernin. "Windy Booher is one of the most colorful people to ever take up space in room three of the music building. [She] was president of the Women's Chorus for two years and was a strong, powerful, commanding but benevolent leader."
"When I was a freshman there was no Amherst College Republicans," said Booher, who offered her help to Kevin Bush '02 when he revived the organization two years ago. "I told him then that I was busy with The Spectator, the Newt and the Women's Chorus, but that I would do what I could to help him," she said.
This year Booher served as vice-chair of the group and witnessed a surge in its popularity. "The group's numbers swelled from 30 to 105," she said. "Our presence was strengthened by the campus reaction to the fiasco in Le Frak that occurred on the afternoon of Sept. 11," Booher said, referring to an all-campus meeting where some professors and freshman speaker Barbara Ehrenreich made political statements that many students found offensive because of their content and timing.
Booher also noted that many of the new members of the Amherst College Republicans are underclassmen. "Maybe somebody in admissions has been asleep at the wheel for the last two years, but they've let an unprecedented amount of moderate-to-conservative students in. The classes of '04 and '05 are just teeming with them."
Founding of the Founding
Professor of Political Science Hadley Arkes created the Committee for the American Founding with the purpose of bringing scholars to speak on the natural rights teachings of Abraham Lincoln and the Founding Fathers. Members of the Committee include faculty, alumni and friends of the College. Arkes approached a group of students and pitched the idea of a Student Committee for the American Founding, which was then created by Chuck Canter '02, Josh Nevas '03, Mike Petrino '03 and Booher.
"The Student Committee for the American Founding is an organization which takes seriously the questions posed at the American Founding," said Petrino. "We are interested in seeing this thought preserved and furthered here at Amherst ... We would like to establish ourselves as a gathering of minds interested in these intellectual issues rather than in the politics of parties, and we would encourage people of all parties to attend our events."
According to Booher, her participation on the Committee has more than enhanced her Amherst experience; it has given her the opportunity to meet leading conservative figures such as Midge Decter and Stephen Hayworth.
"The Committee has made my time at Amherst worthwhile," said Booher. "It has been an opportunity to chat with alumni, to listen to amazing speakers and to finally have a place where my ideas and I can feel comfortable."
Members of the Student Committee for the American Founding participate in larger committee events including semi-annual meetings at the College and a yearly meeting in Washington, D.C. Booher recalls her trip to D.C. with the Committee as the pinnacle of her time at Amherst.
"My favorite committee meeting was in January, in D.C., where we heard oral arguments at the Supreme Court, met Justices [Antonin] Scalia and [Clarence] Thomas and heard from Lynne Cheney and other notables; and spent hours in a dim club room sipping scotch and smoking cigars, plotting the conservative revolution in business suits," said Booher.
Booher didn't limit her time at Amherst to political expression and enjoying the company of conservatives. What many may be unaware of is that she took over management of the Hungry Newt in December of 2000.
She helped expand the business outside of Porter Basement and catered at a number of College venues, including Marsh House. This past year the Newt was responsible for catering Casino.
"Working for the Newt taught me the necessity for improvisation," she said. "Running the Newt taught me patience. The Newt was, in many ways, the most fun thing I did here-it wasn't fraught with political tension, nor was it in need of serious repair when I came to it."
Journalistic aspirations
In the fall, Booher plans to return to the South to become a journalist. She has accepted a job as the city desk at the Panama City News-Herald, where she interned last summer.
"My interest in journalism started when I was very young, I used to write travelogues when we'd go on long car trips," she said.
Despite a youthful interest in journalism, Booher did not expect it to develop into a career. "I started writing for the school paper in ninth grade, but I never considered it a potential vocation. The newspaper kids were just cooler than everyone else."
Booher said that her work this past summer as an intern for the Panama City News-Herald changed her thinking. "I finally realized that I could go out looking for weird stuff, dress all casual and get paid. Brilliant," she said.
Booher did not conform to what many might think is the conventional Amherst mold. She spoke out, challenged people's most fervently held opinions and, all the while, worked to make a real difference on the campus. But Amherst affected Windy Booher as well. "Amherst made me what I am. It made me a conservative. It made me feisty. It taught me hard lessons about debate, discussion and bravery under fire," said Booher.
"I am profoundly grateful that it gave me just what I was looking for-an environment that was 100 percent different from the way I was raised. It certainly made me appreciate the South more. As much as I can't wait to get back there, I am glad I came here," she said.