Around the Pond

CHOMSKY ON CAMPUS

Philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky was at the opening of Crotty Hall, the new net-zero-energy home of the economics department designed by architect Sigrid Miller Pollin of the UMass Amherst architecture department. The Political Economy Research Institute hosted Chomsky, who spoke on “Prospects of Survival.” 

Chomsky questioned humanity’s evolutionary viability, given our preference for choosing nuclear proliferation over national security, and the deafness of the United States to the imperatives of climate change. Citing the environmental leadership of countries such as Denmark, Germany, and even China, Chomsky expressed dismay that the United States, from a policy perspective, seems headed in the opposite direction from the rest of the world. 

Chomsky took the “information system” to task for ignoring climate change: “After all, it’s only the most important issue in human history,” he said. Yet, he held up the examples of Hawaii, Massachusetts, and San Diego as glimmers of hope for their sustainability efforts. “States and cities,” he said, “have the power to do quite a lot.” 

SOUTH COLLEGE TRANSFORMED

UMass Amherst celebrated the $65 million transformation of South College this spring with a ceremony in the soaring four-story atrium shared by renovated and new parts of the building. The facility, which is 67,500 square feet larger than the original 30,000-square-foot building, opened for the spring 2017 semester and provides a new home for the College of Humanities and Fine Arts (HFA) offices and the departments of English; philosophy; history of art and architecture; and women, gender, sexuality studies.

The building’s graceful blend of old and new embodies the core values of HFA, commented Dean Julie Hayes; it embraces the past while welcoming new ideas of the future.