This summer, Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science Austin Sarat and Professor of Spanish Ilan Stavans were appointed Five College Fortieth Anniversary Professors.
Each honoree serves a three-year period during which they receive a research allowance and teach one course of their choosing at a different institution within the consortium. In addition, each appointee is expected to give a public lecture.
Since the Five College consortium already enables students of participating institutions-Hampshire, Smith, Mt. Holyoke and Amherst Colleges, along with UMass-to take courses offered on any of the five campuses, the presidents and deans of faculty at each of the five colleges helped to create this program to further facilitate this unique educational opportunity.
The central idea behind the program is to give both senior faculty members and students of all five colleges a unique experience: appointees will now have the opportunity to teach in a different environment and explore areas of personal interest in more depth. Students in turn will be able to take a class normally not offered on their own campus and taught by a visiting professor of high regard and erudition.
President Anthony Marx showed enthusiasm for the increased opportunities this program will create for students at the College. "We took the lead in proposing that the Fortieth anniversary Five College professorships be established ... in recognition of [the consortium] that makes it possible for us to cover the range of a great research university and retain the quality and scale of a great liberal arts college," he said.
Marx said that he felt Amherst students understood that the College alone cannot provide everything that students might want to pursue. "I think Amherst College students appreciate that ... it is certainly preferable to go to our peer institutions for some of their great programs that we can't offer here," he said. "The numbers suggest that Amherst students do appreciate that additional opportunity."
Nominations for the professorships were made by the deans of faculty and presidents at each Five College institution. The board of directors of Five Colleges, Inc. then approved the nomination.
Lorna Peterson, executive director of Five Colleges, Inc. and general overseer of the Five College Board of Directors explained the reason for creating the program in a recent interview. "The goal [was] to encourage and support more exchanges among senior faculty members and to commemorate the Fortieth anniversary of the incorporation of Five Colleges, Inc. by honoring faculty who are key to the success of cooperative efforts," she said.
Marx said that he was pleased with the program. "We signified our dedication to the five colleges with the term appointments of our most distinguished faculty as our signal that we see the great value of this collaborative effort that sets Amherst apart from most of its peer institutions," he said.
The other four appointees each came from one of the neighboring institutions: Christopher Benfey from the English department at Mt. Holyoke, Barton Byg from the German department at UMass, David Newbury from the history department at Smith College, and Daniel Werner from the music department at Hampshire College.
Stavans is already planning various projects that he hopes to accomplish during his three-year appointment. "I plan to employ my energy in completing a series of projects, in particular the Norton Anthology of Latino Literature, a biography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and a TV documentary on Jewish-Hispanic relations," he said.
When asked on how he felt about the overall program, Stavans said, "I'm humbled by the experience. Teaching at Amherst College has allowed me to grow intellectually in ways I could not have foreseen." Sarat appreciates this opportunity as well. "I was tremendously honored that Amherst College would think that I was an appropriate person to participate in this program," he said.
Sarat said that he was looking forward to the possibilities of his professorship. "Not only will I be able to teach in any field or department of my choosing, and experience a different atmosphere of learning, but I'll also be able to really broaden intellectual horizons," he said.