This year, persistent UMass Amherst undergraduates adapted to COVID-19 restrictions as they engaged in research, exercised their creativity, and elevated their campus and community. They found ways to thrive, working on campus when permitted and capitalizing on remote research, learning, volunteer, and experiential opportunities. Nine students were named spring 2021 UMass Amherst Rising Researchers, including Political Science Major Claire Healy '21, Commonwealth Honors College. In her first year at UMass, Claire Healy had a grand vision. What if there was an international, multilingual magazine that could create community among young people across borders? The magazine would publish poets, writers, artists, and journalists and its audience would experience a diverse collective of perspectives, artwork, and languages. The first issue of Claire’s dream magazine, The Open, will be published before she graduates from UMass in May. She produced it on a focused foundation of four years of coursework, internships, study abroad, and extracurricular work. (SBS News, 5/25/2021)

UMass Poll results are cited in a column countering the continuing attempts by Republicans to blame the political left for the January 6, 2021 violence at the U.S. Capitol. As part of the poll, respondents were asked their thoughts on who bore responsibility for the attack, and a plurality pointed at former President Trump. (The Washington Post, 5/28/21; News Office release)

Jamie Rowen, Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science at UMass Amherst, writes about the effects of the pandemic on veterans. Rowen explains eight ways in which the pandemic continues to threaten veterans: age and other vulnerabilities; benefits unfairly denied or delayed; diminished access to health care; the potential for worsening mental health; complications for homeless veterans and those in the justice system; disability benefits delayed; dangerous residential facilities; and economic catastrophe. (The Conversation, 5/27/21)

Alexander Theodoridis, Associate Professor of Political Science at UMass Amherst, is quoted in an opinion piece about the changing views of Republicans in Congress about the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.  He says, “The half-life of January 6 memory has proven remarkably short given the objectively shocking nature of what took place at the Capitol that day …  There is now seemingly no limit to the ability of partisans to see the world through thick, nearly opaque red and blue colored lenses.” The article also cites a national UMass Poll conducted April 21-23, on which 45% of respondents said that former President Trump was most responsible for the January 6 attack. (The New York Times, 5/19/21)