Amherst College has reportedly begun removing its senior staff from multiple departments following intense backlash online over an intimately explicit orientation ceremony that took place on August 31, 2025.
The event, known as “Voices of the Class”, was held inside Johnson Chapel, which is described by the college as its most important building. The performance was funded, reviewed, and approved by the administration as part of the mandatory freshman orientation.
Highlights
- Freshmen at Amherst College were required to attend an orientation skit featuring adult skits, held in the historic Johnson Chapel.
- At least four senior administrators have been removed from their roles following the controversy, though the college officially labels it a "restructuring."
- Despite the administration calling the event "lighthearted," many students reported feeling deeply uncomfortable and experiencing "involuntary flashbacks."
- The college requested faces be blurred to protect student performers.
The videos of the event went viral, featuring students performing simulated adult acts.
In the weeks since the footage went online, several administrators tied to the program have quietly disappeared from their roles.
The viral videos showed students of Amherst College performing simulated intimate acts during a mandatory orientation event held in the campus Chapel
Image credits: amherstcollege
“Voices of the Class” has been part of Amherst’s orientation since 2007 and is coordinated by the Office of Student Affairs.
Every year, junior and senior students write a script using excerpts from incoming students’ admission essays, which is then reviewed and approved by staff.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, the 2025 performance included a mock oral course, self-stimulation, and adult encounters involving multiple people which were performed on the chancel of Johnson Chapel.
Image credits: amherstcollege
The students also mimed drug use and shared “high thoughts” during the skit.
While the administration described the event as “not graphic” and a “lighthearted tradition,” several students have come forward admitting they were deeply uncomfortable and felt pressured to attend.
“The administration instructed us to send the first-years to the event,” one orientation leader said. “Had I known what it was, I certainly wouldn’t have.”
On a student-only app named “Fizz”, critical reactions poured in, where posts condemning the performance received hundreds of upvotes.
“WTFF WAS THAT S*X PERFORMANCE AT VOICES,” one student wrote. Another added that seeing the performers afterward caused “involuntary flashbacks.”
Amherst quietly removed several administrators after the exposé, despite denying that anyone was fired
Image credits: amherstcollege
Following widespread online outrage, at least four administrators connected to the programming were removed from their positions.
They included the heads of the Queer Resource Center, the Women’s and Gender Center, the Multicultural Resource Center, and the assistant director for Religious and Spiritual Life.
Furthermore, their names were scrubbed from departmental pages, and at least one email account was deactivated.
Image credits: WashingtonFreeBeacon
On “Fizz”, students quickly noticed the changes. One wrote, “It can’t be a coincidence.”
“There are multiple staff members mentioned in the article who have since been laid off,” added another.
Despite this, Amherst spokesperson Caroline Hanna has reportedly denied that anyone was terminated, stating that “several positions were eliminated in Student Affairs as part of a long-planned divisional restructuring.”
The college also sought to blur student faces from the event after the footage went viral
Image credits: WashingtonFreeBeacon
After the videos spread across social media, Amherst asked the Washington Free Beacon to blur the faces of student performers, claiming they had experienced harassment and doxxing.
“I am writing to respectfully request that you consider blurring the faces of the participants,” Hanna wrote, saying it would make it “a little harder for trolls and others to identify and harass the people in the videos.”
However, the outlet declined, noting that Amherst had funded and approved the event and that no factual errors were present in the reporting.
Moreover, the request drew criticism after it emerged that the college had taken a far less aggressive stance months earlier when a conservative student journalist received a d*ath threat over a separate article.
In that case, the student was not granted additional protections, and the person who made the threat remained on campus.
The ceremony was part of a broader pattern of explicit, staff-run adult programming at Amherst
Image credits: WashingtonFreeBeacon
The orientation performance was not an isolated incident. Amherst also requires students to attend “Wellbeing Skits”, which demonstrate drunken adult encounters and simulated activity under blankets, complete with moaning and thrusting.
Another event called “S*x in the Dark” encourages students to anonymously discuss intimate habits, kinks, and fantasies in a pitch-black room with “s*x experts”, while distributing glow-in-the-dark condoms.
Image credits: WashingtonFreeBeacon
Furthermore, the college has funded drag shows featuring explicit performances and paid performers with names such as “Stanley Coochie,” as well as a 2024 concert by rapper CupcakKe.
One student described the culture as “disturbing and dystopian”.
“If I knew how constantly repressed and weird I would feel for not participating, I would have thought much longer about coming here.”
The internet sleuths shared divided reactions over the students performing explicit acts
Image credits: WashingtonFreeBeacon
As soon as the video went online, users were quick to share their opinions.
“This has gone way too far,” one commenter wrote. “And in the chapel? Good grief.”
Another added, “They thought it was funny, now they want faces blurred.”
Others questioned the direction of higher education altogether, with one remarking, “Maybe colleges should go back to teaching useful courses instead of indoctrination.”
“This is optional and done by consenting adults. What’s the problem?” one wrote.
Another added, “If this were high school, I’d understand, but college is for adults.”
As of now, Amherst has not announced any formal changes to its orientation programming, nor clarified whether the staff departures were disciplinary.
“This higher education is worth $60k per year?” wrote one netizen
