Campus Summer Programs to Continue Amid Uncertainty

With the new Student Center and Dining Commons (SCDC) opening in Fall 2026, the administration has confirmed that the transition from Valentine Dining Hall over the next summer will not lead to the cancellation of summer programs, nor a reduction in program participants.

Each summer, hundreds of students anticipate remaining on campus in order to participate in research through numerous programs and internships, such as the Science Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), in which more than 100 students participated this past summer, the Gregory S. Call Academic Intern program, and the Schupf Fellows program. However, some students expressed concern that the construction of the SCDC would lead to these programs being cancelled, as students staying on campus would not have a functioning dining hall. 

As Jesse Lebolt ’28 was searching for Amherst summer programs like the Keck Geology Consortium he participated in last year, he said he was “surprised to hear several classmates discussing that summer programs, including SURF, would be scaled back this summer.” Lebolt further described these programs as an “integral part” of the STEM community at Amherst and expressed concern that students would need to alter their plans for the summer if SURF was affected.

To the relief of students like Lebolt, Provost and Dean of the Faculty Martha Umphrey said that the administration has found a solution that would keep the number of Amherst students on campus over the summer “relatively steady” compared to the past. 

Over the past several months, senior staff members of the college have been meeting in order to find a balance between maintaining dining services for summer programs and transitioning to the SCDC. 

According to Executive Director of Campus Operations Ralph Johnson, as the college transitions between dining halls in July, an outside firm will be providing additional staffing at Val. This will allow current Dining Services employees to be trained in the SCDC while keeping Val in continuous operation during the summer. 

“Some employees [will] still remain in Val during the month of July to help ensure a seamless operation,” Johnson added.

Linxi Cai ’27 recalls her SURF experience as “very helpful” to her growth as a biophysics major who hopes to pursue a career in research, and believes that it is highly necessary for on-campus programs like SURF to continue during a time of widespread budget cuts in academia.

“I think it’s especially important [that] they make SURF work, because outside opportunities are more competitive and government-funded programs are also in shortage,” Cai said. “All the other schools definitely want to prioritize their own students, so Amherst should do that as well.”

When asked about whether on-campus programs for non-Amherst students will be affected, Umphrey said that one clear difference this coming summer is the absence of the Thrive Scholars program, where under-resourced high school seniors live on campuses across the country for six weeks during the summer. While these students are at Amherst, they live in residence halls and dine at Val. This summer, organizers of the program have elected to move to a different location in order to house more students than would be possible at Amherst. 

Umphrey affirmed that this decision will not impact the Amherst students who will be on campus and clarified that “Amherst did not initiate [this] change.”  

Umphrey did not provide details on the precise number of students anticipated to be on campus next summer, the exact dates of the transition, and the presence of non-Amherst students outside of the Thrive Scholars program. The full logistics of the summer experience have yet to be entirely finalized, but Umphrey is confident in the consistency and hosting ability of dining services for the coming summer.

 “I’m just happy that it will seem to Amherst students [to be] a relatively normal, familiar summer,” Umphrey said.

Anna Wang ’28 contributed to the reporting of this article.