Remember how summers in high school never quite belonged to you because you needed to do something that would look good on your college applications? Well, in college, they throw another "formal vacation" on you-and this time, it's trickier to deal with. Interterm is three weeks long, smack-dab in the middle of winter. Its purpose, ostensibly, is to provide students with the opportunity to do something that they would enjoy or that they need the time to do, without the pressures of school work bearing down upon them. This is true for many students: homesick first-years roam around familiar street corners and cafés (though sometimes without many friends around-Interterm is a college experience unique to just a few lucky institutions like Amherst), seniors work on theses for lack of excuses, student-athletes return to Amherst to train for the spring season, ambitious students venture to far-off Boston and New York to take on some short internships … But what about the rest of us? Interterm, if one is not properly prepared and equipped, can easily become a soul-breaking perpetuation of the winter blahs.
There are three options, really, in terms of geography: the Home, the City or the College. Home is a wildcard-those who call Cheeseville, Montana "home" may not be as excited as those who find their abodes in Santa Monica, California. Home also involves parents and siblings-I don't think that this point requires much elaboration. (Honestly, though, there are almost two weeks between the last day of school and the first day of Interterm-and five weeks is a bit excessive, don't you think?)
The City can be exciting. New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. are probably the Cities in which most Amherst students find internships. However, there are some stumbling blocks. The first conflict is finding such internships. Three-week winter internships are not easy to come by. Amherst College's Winternship program hooks students up with non-profit and non-governmental internships, and even funds them with a modest living stipend and finds them alumni hosting. This ideal route, however, requires some advanced planning. The meeting for learning how to apply to the Winternship program is in mid to late September. There's not really anyone to blame for the situation-such a program requires much advanced planning on everyone's part. But the time issue is exactly the problem. We're college students-we don't have time. Not that we don't have time as a commodity, but that we don't have time in terms of foresight. We don't have enough time to get our acts together. Some would argue that those lacking foresight deserve whatever end they may come to. However, this uncharitable point of view need not rule Amherst College's attitude toward students and the issue of Interterm.
So what about coming back to the College then? Isn't that a possibility? Shouldn't that be a very reasonable possibility? Well, of course! Valentine Hall is open, the athletic facilities are open, the library has reasonable hours. So what's the problem? Well, it's that eensy little thing … there's nothing to do.
In late 2000, a committee of students, professors and administrators decided that the student-run classes that had previously been taught at Amherst during Interterm were too poorly attended to continue to receive funding. The result? A complete cut-off of student-run classes, with funds allocated to evening activities for the day-working students (i.e. thesis students, med school prep students etc.) who were on campus for Interterm with their own specific purposes. For example, last year, the College organized three free bowling trips, FLIC showings of Shark Tales and Shrek 2 for all those thesis writers and pre-med students. I'm sure they took great advantage out of these extremely exciting activities.
There are indeed some great programs that run during Interterm. Among past programs are RAD classes, EMT training courses, MCAT preparation courses, pre-calculus review classes and various computer courses (e.g. Adobe Photoshop® workshops). Beyond these, however, there are not many options. Interterm at Amherst, a program advertised to be a great time for exploration and experimentation, is in reality a K-Mart clearance section that boasts a hodgepodge of great finds amongst other lackluster offerings.
What Amherst needs is a new approach to Interterm. If the student-run classes (42 were run in the Interterm prior to the fund-cutting) were no longer an acceptable fashion in which to manage Interterm, better alternatives should have been discussed before deciding that three nights of bowling were going to cut it. What about limiting student-run classes to those who received considerable student body interest and reliable organization on the part of the directing student? Are there no professors interested in conducting part-time informal classes? There are so many semester long classes taught at Amherst that many people would agree could be better taught within a nice three week parameter … e.g. the history of bubblegum pop music, the pros of the Bush presidency, Physics 25 … the list goes on. While I realize that many professors enjoy Interterm as a nice time to spend with family, prepare for the next semester, work on individual projects and so forth, it does sadden me that Interterm doesn't allow for a more informal intellectual exploration involving not only upperclassmen willing to teach classes but also professors who would want to get together with students just for the heck of it. (On a positive note, I am not entirely correct in saying this: Associate Professor of Psychology Catherine Sanderson is teaching "Close Relationships: The Condensed Version" over the three-week Interterm period).
However, if it is determined that student and professor-taught classes simply cannot be conducted, Interterm funds need to be allocated to bringing a few more classes to Amherst College. After all, you can only take an EMT course so many times. There are lots of pursuits out there in which Amherst students take interest, particularly in the arts. While the College provides lists during pre-registration about fine arts courses available to humanities and sciences majors, it doesn't provide the other obvious venue for cultivating broadened horizons, in the form of fine arts classes during Interterm. "Pottery: History and Practice," or "Intro to Stage Acting," anyone? Another course option would be to offer writing classes for students who need improvement, a topic that has been buzzing around on campus. While an editing and proofreading class was offered by the Writing Center during Interterm 2005 and will be offered again this Interterm, the gravest problem in student writing at Amherst is not our lackluster ability to clean up a paper at 5:30 in the morning on the day that it's due. Rather, the problem is deeper-involving our inability to scope out true issues, express critical thoughts on paper and go beyond adamantly rehashing a single point. Three weeks is not enough to teach this lifelong class; however, it's a good time to provide a foundation, at the very least.
Interterm holds so many possibilities for students-the Home, the City, the College. But let's work to make the College option more appealing. Besides being perhaps the most convenient of the three, Interterm at the College is also a great time for personal growth. To be able to spend time with close friends, to participate in an activity that broadens one's scope of knowledge and to simply enjoy Amherst in its winter beauty sans school pressure, are invaluable to the Amherst experience.
Luckily for my poor nerves, the list of Interterm 2006 activities has finally come out. While I had been optimistic that the holes in Interterm planning would have miraculously self-repaired, I have to admit that the list is in reality a bit disappointing. While the Alexander technique sounds interesting, to say the least, there are few other Interterm-long courses or activities. Rather, upon closer inspection, the long list of Interterm programs is actually a long list of Interterm day-long events, most of which are taking place in the last week before spring semester begins. Unfortunately, by the time I wrote this article, and by the time that list came out, it was too late for me to do anything more about Interterm than to sign myself up for that class on contact improvisation, supplemented by the pre-calculus review class … unless I take that EMT class again. Either way, let's hope for the best, and at least work to improve for the future.
Chau can be reached at vchau08@amherst.edu