Tommy Filiault: Amherst College can do more to support town

I agree 100% with John Varner’s column about UMass supporting the town with funding [“Amherst deal with UMass a good start, more needed,” Gazette, July 14]. Now I would like to see Amherst College double or triple that effort from UMass.

Being the home of the Belle of Amherst, the pride of the Seven Sisters, Amherst College has the name known the world over. But does Amherst College understand that the town makes the college, not the other way around?

Amherst roads are terrible. Amherst elementary schools and high schools are 50 years old or older. Does Amherst College see the town of Amherst as their own or someone else’s? Look at Harvard and Cambridge. Look at Princeton or Dartmouth. The people of those towns see the respect, the greatness of their legacy from how those institutions support the town.

Stop being just a name only college. Amherst College has access to $3 billion reasons why you could do a lot better.

Tommy Filiault

Sunderland

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