<p>It’s true, oldfort, that Angie has the right to tell her story, with the proviso that if she is lying she opens herself up to claims of libel (this is not a likely scenario, but my point is that one doesn’t have the absolute right to say absolutely anything about absolutely anybody). My point is that the newspaper ought to have observed standards of professionalism responsibility and declined to print this uncorroborated account of administrative malfeasance at Amherst. (Yes, I am going that far; I do not think they should have printed it.) Angie’s “opinion” of Amherst was embedded in a pointed and detailed account of wrongdoing. If I were the editor of this paper, I’d have investigated but would not have taken her account at face value. That’s not to say I wouldn’t have taken it seriously.</p>
<p>The President of Amherst College apparently finds more validity in the reports of Ms. Epifano and others than posters here are finding:</p>
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</p>
<p>Angie has stated her side of the story. I would like to hear what Amherst has to say. </p>
<p>This is not an investigative reporting, not written by a reporter from the paper, so not sure why the paper needed to do verification. I am not sure how the paper would do verification in this case.</p>
<p>The problem is that the college can’t respond without violating the student’s confidentiality. I’m inclined to believe she was raped as well but I’m concerned that we’re only hearing one side of the story. I’ll play devil’s advocate here.</p>
<p>For all we know the school’s version of the story would go something like this…</p>
<p>"Last year a student came to me in crisis. She had multiple issues- depression, anxiety, a history of eating disorders and abuse in her home of origin, and an unreported date rape from freshman year.</p>
<p>I recommended counseling and we discussed the difficulty of prosecuting the rapist at this point. I warned her that although I would support her in going after him the chance of a conviction was nil. Without any physical evidence, and after almost a year there was no way he would be found guilty. Even bringing him before the student disciplinary board would be futile. It would be a he said, she said situation and besides, as we were having this discussion in May, he would have graduated before the board could be convened.</p>
<p>The student requested a room change but I couldn’t find a change that would provide relief from her fears, as she was already living in a different dorm from her alleged rapist and there wasn’t a single available in an all-women’s dorm. I did not believe that her issues would be ameliorated with a room change. If anything, making a new social start would be destructive. We agreed that she would return for counseling.</p>
<p>I met with the student on a number of occasions. In the course of a later session the student, clearly distraught, threatened suicide. We’ve learned to take these threats seriously and protocol dictates that suicidal students must be admitted to a local hospital for observation and/or treatment. I do not have information as to what she was told by her doctors at he hospital.</p>
<p>When the student was ready to return to campus we discussed her plan. Standard health and safety procedure, put in place for the security of the student, requires that students newly released from the hospital have a support network in place for the first few weeks. We find this time to be particularly critical for students who have been in crisis and that this support can help prevent a relapse or, worse yet, an attempted suicide. When the social worker brought to our attention the fact that the student did not have appropriate support [are her parents dead or has she just disowned them?] we made an exception for her.</p>
<p>The student applied for a study abroad program for her Junior year, but her grades had slipped quite a bit during the last semester [I have no evidence of this but she does say she fell apart in the spring so it’s not an outlandish supposition, and the time in the hospital could not have been good for her GPA] so the deans felt she needed to show a stable pattern of academic work before being allowed to go abroad. As the student did not have family support we felt we had to take the in loco parentis relationship particularly seriously. We were also concerned about the lack of mental health support in her country of choice.</p>
<p>The student came to me again in the fall of junior year. Clearly she was still experiencing mental health issues. In meetings with the deans she requested permission to do independent work at other schools in the consortium, but as was the case with the junior year abroad request, we felt she needed stability in both her personal and academic lives before branching out. Knowing the student had suffered from an eating disorder in the past [something she discloses in the piece], and noticing that she seemed excessively skinny I asked if she was eating properly and if she might need counseling for eating issues. The dean recommended continuing therapy with our staff. </p>
<p>The student has since decided to withdraw from the college, a decision we regret but could not talk her out of."</p>
<p>Adad, thanks for that post. I provided the exact quote yesterday at post 73 and the people who questioned this young woman’s credibility took no notice and continued to question the reality of her claims. Perhaps your post will have some impact.</p>
<p>Can the following be a viable option to students?</p>
<p>A student can pick a dorm that’s monitored 24/7 with digital recordings AND no one can view it without the student’s written permission.</p>
<p>Rich colleges sure have the funds for that or when the technology gets cheaper.</p>
<p>The best solution is to let men and women have equal say on everything.</p>
<p>If we discounted every report of abuse from people with “troubled backgrounds”, Jerry Sandusky would still be a free man.</p>
<p>3girls, everything is not black and white.</p>
<p>It seems clear that this young woman has experienced significant trauma, quite possibly in more than one environment. It seems clear that the college as an institution made an effort to help her and failed. It seems clear that many other people have chosen not to report rapes or sexual assaults at the college, and that at least some of those who have reported have not felt well served. It seems clear that the president of the college was already concerned about the handling of such cases, had already taken steps to improve the procedures, and also takes this and other allegations very seriously.</p>
<p>That does not mean that there isn’t another side to every story.</p>
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<p>Maybe I missed it, but I haven’t seen anyone here advocating that her report be “discounted.”</p>
<p>And I think that everyone realizes that abusers have a talent for selecting vulnerable targets.</p>
<p>@absweetmarie, I agree with your post that “the Williams College policy seems to create a disincentive to report for a young woman who has been raped while intoxicated. I can imagine that the fear of discipline would prevent many young rape victims from coming forward.”<br>
It almost seems that it is a way for the college to wash their hands of the problem. A girl (or boy) reports a rape. The college rep asks, “Well, had you had anything to drink?” If the answer is yes, then too bad for you…problem solved for the college. Seems this could also give more incentive to use the old ‘get her drunk’ plan for the guys since getting her drunk would mean that she would be much less likely to report anything.</p>
<p>Sue22, I think your theoretical version of the school’s side of the story sounds plausible. That’s not to say I think it’s what happened, just that I could see something like this having happened. </p>
<p>To the extent that Angie’s story spurred Amherst to review and evaluate its policies with regard to sexual misconduct, that is a good outcome. The college president’s response is admirable. I, for one, am not suggesting that “unreported sexual violence” is not a problem; I think it is. As for what the paper could have printed instead, below are some questions that Angie’s story raises for me, and that I (putting on my journalist’s hat) would have asked the administration by way of follow up:</p>
<ol>
<li>Underreporting of sexual violence is a well-documented phenomenon. What is Amherst doing to create an environment where victims feel safe reporting rape and other sexual crimes?</li>
<li>Statistics show that false reports of rape are rare. At the same time, they are not unheard of. What is Amherst doing to safeguard the rights of the accused? Are there methods of safeguarding the rights of the accused that don’t degrade the accuser?</li>
<li>Ms. Epifano reported a rape several months after it occurred. She claims she was dissuaded from pressing charges. Can you comment on this? (At this point, the administrator responds that they are “looking into the particulars of this case.”) Okay, then, what is your policy in general in these cases? If a young woman alleges she was raped, regardless of when it happened, shouldn’t you take it seriously? Having said that, can you talk about the difficulty of investigating an alleged rape months after it occurred?</li>
</ol>
<p>Etc. I think that printing the account as Ms. Epifano wrote it is yellow journalism. Yes, of course, her account gave the president a reason to look into what happened. And, yes, of course, in the wake of this case she heard from others who suffered sexual violence and didn’t report it. And it is not surprising that the president heard from others who didn’t feel the counseling center made them feel comfortable reporting rape or other sexual crimes. That doesn’t mean the counselors, the police and the psychiatrist at the inpatient unit acted in the cartoonish, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest way Ms. Epifano describes. Maybe they did, but I would be surprised.</p>
<p>Many people have read “The Bell Jar” and taken every word in it as gospel truth. If you are one of them, sometime try looking for the point of view of Sylvia Plath’s much maligned roommate. Sylvia may have been telling “her” truth, but it was not the ONLY truth.</p>
<p>" The college rep asks, “Well, had you had anything to drink?” If the answer is yes, then too bad for you…problem solved for the college."</p>
<p>Nope. Read the policy, which specifically states:</p>
<p>"An individual is unable to give consent if he or she is:</p>
<ul>
<li>substantially physically or mentally impaired by alcohol or drugs</li>
<li>forced or threatened</li>
<li>physically incapable of resisting assault, asleep, or unconscious
Unless an individual is substantially physically or mentally impaired, consent while under the influence of alcohol or drugs is valid consent."</li>
</ul>
<p>As to the story, Amherst (and Williams, and others) does not have dozens of rapists freely roaming their campuses - as they do - without a culture that allows it, and administrations that, one way or another, enable such behavior. That rape victims are doubly victimized is not in the least a new story.</p>
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<p>OMG, Really? </p>
<p>I think most people presume that Angie believes she was raped. The only “credibility” that is being questioned is because this is "her’ story… it is an op-ed piece and will probably remain so because of the time glidepath of the story and the inability of the therapists and counselors to tell “their side.” </p>
<p>The point is the hook up culture and friends with benefits is reality and it extends down into high schools. Locking boys and girls up in separate buildings or monitoring their every activity does not solve the problem. Perhaps we need some reasonable regression from co-ed bathrooms and open dorms for the safety of all but minimally we cannot go back to the forties and fifties nor can we go to the extreme of individual electronic monitoring. But even if we proceed to cut back on opportunity it amounts sometimes to an argument about what is consensual sex and non-consensual sex and as long as boys can go into girls rooms with the door closed and girls can go to boys rooms with the door closed it becomes personal, add alcohol to the mix and the situation is explosive. The only thing we as parents can do it keep an open dialogue with our young men and women about personal safety and their drinking habits. Just as our sexual lives in the seventies was very different from our parents, our children’s sexual lives are very different from ours. The point in time they start having sex may be similar but how they approach this activity is quite different in many respects.</p>
<p>Ms. Epifano isn’t the only rape survivor at Amherst who is speaking out about 1) the abysmal way rape victims are treated by the school administration and 2) the culture of sexism at the school & specifically a t-shirt depicting a women being roasted over a spit with an apple in her mouth, wearing only a bra and thong.</p>
<p>Since I’m not sure which of these links might not show up here (because some are from “blogs”), Google “Dana Bolger” - Ms. Bolger is currently a junior at Amherst. She has a piece in the Amherst College Voice about the t-shirt incident [Amherst</a> College: ?Roasting Fat Ones Since 1847? AC VOICE<a href=“this%20piece%20also%20appears%20in%20Ms.%20Magazine%20Blog,%20titled” title=“When College Humor Just Isn’t Funny”>/url</a>. She also has a piece about surviving rape called “Surviving Rape: What I Want Other College Students to Know About Title IX” which appears at the National Women’s Law Center site [url=<a href=“http://www.nwlc.org/our-blog/surviving-rape-what-i-want-other-college-students-know-about-title-ix]Surviving”>http://www.nwlc.org/our-blog/surviving-rape-what-i-want-other-college-students-know-about-title-ix]Surviving</a> Rape: What I Want Other College Students to Know About Title IX | National Women’s Law Center](<a href=“http://acvoice.com/2012/10/08/amherst-college-roasting-fat-ones-since-1847/]Amherst”>http://acvoice.com/2012/10/08/amherst-college-roasting-fat-ones-since-1847/) and at Ms. Magazine Blog (College Rape Survivors: Title IX Is Not Just About Sports [College</a> Rape Survivors: Title IX Is Not Just About Sports : Ms. Magazine Blog](<a href=“http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2012/08/02/college-rape-survivors-title-ix-is-not-just-about-sports/]College”>College Rape Survivors: Title IX Is Not Just About Sports - Ms. Magazine) ) She talks about the aftermath of her rape in this piece, but does not identify Amherst College as her school nor give details of how the school administration treated her.</p>
<p>She says this in her article about the t-shirt incident:
</p>
<p>and describes the aftermath of her rape in the “Title IX” piece
</p>
<p>Now, in an article that was published in the Huffington Post yesterday, Ms Bolger makes it clear that her rape happened at Amherst:
</code></pre>
<p>[Sexual</a> Violence On Amherst’s Campus: Sexist T-Shirt Triggers Debate On Rape, Sexual Assault](<a href=“Sexual Violence On Amherst's Campus: Sexist T-Shirt Triggers Debate On Rape, Sexual Assault | HuffPost College”>Sexual Violence On Amherst's Campus: Sexist T-Shirt Triggers Debate On Rape, Sexual Assault | HuffPost College)</p>
<p>The T-shirt is horrifying.</p>
<p>^More so than the rape itself? This story is highly disturbing.</p>
<p>Ms. Bolger also does not say whether she called the police and pressed charges. If rape is a crime ad I’m sure all of us (women) would agree it’s a crime, then we need to empower women to be comfortable reporting. I’m sorry that women feel that calling the police is intrusive, invasive or whatever, but accusing someone of rape is a very serious statement and deserves a serious response for both the alleged victim and the alleged rapist. Someone asked me earlier what I would expect a university to do if there was a series of burglaries and since last time I looked burglary was a crime, I would expect the college to tell the victims of burglary to call the police.It is the job of a business or a university to put reasonable measures in place to prevent crimes, but it is not the job of businesses or universities to prosecute crime. Harassment is also a crime but it takes a report to start the wheels of justice.</p>
<p>As far as Amherst expelling the student who was found guilty of rape, well, I would HOPE a college would expel a student found guilty of rape. As far as a “disciplinary committee” handling out “justice” they need to be very careful that they aren’t stepping over their legal boundaries.</p>
<p>Oops I just found an article that says she did file charges either civil or criminal.</p>
<p>I think it would be beneficial for women in general to also learn to say what they want. It’s good that women are continually feeling more empowered but until we can also articulate what we want in a very specific actionable manner we’re not really empowered. It’s one thing to say you want Amherst administration to ‘change’ but it would be far better if the women of Amherst could come together and articulate what those actionable changes might be. </p>
<p>I’ve been thinking all day about women that don’t call the police when they have been raped. I’ve been imaging what I would say if I were a college administrator (or a mother of a D) and the woman (or the D) tells me she doesn’t want to call the police. I suspect the first thing in my brain would be “what do you want (to have happen now etc.)?” Between Title IX and the justice system there are channels, but if you choose a different path you need to be able to articulate what you want. If you don’t know what you want then you need a trusted adviser or therapist to help you figure out what you want.</p>
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<p>You know, I really find this kind of attack unwarranted and unworthy.</p>
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<p>GO TO THE POLICE, FOR GOD’S SAKE!!!</p>
<p>She says she eventually told the dean. The dean? Someone is trying to physically break into your dorm room and you don’t CALL SECURITY RIGHT THEN?? </p>
<p>I’m beginning to think that the most effective step that colleges could take to decrease sexual assault is to convince people to just call the damned police right away. If enough of these assaults were reported and investigated, things would change. Certainly the serial offenders who according to what we are told seem to commit most of the crimes would be likely to stop after they were investigated a few times!</p>
<p>I’m sorry, I’ve never been the victim of assault and I realize that rape victims often want to wipe it away rather than confront it. I have a huge amount of sympathy for them. But I think it is time that more young women took a leaf out of Savannah Dietrich’s book. Women should not allow themselves to be isolated and shamed.</p>
<p>Imagine how things might have been different if Angie Epifano had screamed when he was trying to rape her, or if she couldn’t, if she had burst out of the room and told the roommates “He raped me! Call the police NOW!”</p>
<p>It is SO frustrating.</p>
<p>Agree…</p>