Angie Epifano’s wrenching story concerning Amherst College’s mishandling of her sexual assault has outraged and mobilized the internet. Since being published by The Amherst Student on October 17th, Epifano’s piece has since been covered on Jezebel and The Frisky, and widely discussed on Reddit and Twitter.
Epifano’s narrative bears a trigger warning for its sensitive nature. It begins, “When you’re being raped time does not stop. Time does not speed up and jump ahead like it does when you are with friends. Instead, time becomes your nemesis; it slows to such an excruciating pace that every second becomes an hour, every minute a year, and the rape becomes a lifetime.”
The Amherst Student has literally been overwhelmed by the response, which overloaded the site’s servers and caused it to shut down temporarily: “I knew it would be big on campus,” Editor-in-Chief Brianda Reyes ’14 tells HerCampus, but adds “personally I didn’t think it would reach as many people as it did.”
Readers from Yale, UMass, Mt. Holyoke, Swarthmore, and other colleges across the country have commented in support of Epifano. There are even responses from readers in Australia and the UK.
“So far, everyone is talking about it, processing it, trying to mediate strong reactions with stepping back and thinking about the issue as a whole,” says Elodie, Amherst ’13.
Epifano, who withdrew from Amherst last July, submitted her story to the editors of The Amherst Student after hearing that an open campus meeting had been called to address the topic of sexual misconduct. (This meeting being largely in response to Dana Bolger’s op-ed in the Amherst College Voice about an offensive Amherst fraternity t-shirt design).
Reyes refers to Amherst as “the college that I love.” And although Epifano’s story was difficult to digest, Reyes “didn’t hesitate” to publish it.
In addition to publishing the full piece online (12 pages) a shortened version was printed in the paper. The editors have since received letters of gratitude, open letters to the Amherst administration, and inquiries from media outlets wanting to talk to Epifano (currently on vacation in Europe).
Before publishing the op-ed, I “didn’t think it was prevalent in higher education,” Reyes says of the poor treatment Epifano received. The wide resonance of the story suggests otherwise.
Many schools, Amherst included, have internal ways of dealing with such cases–a practice that students are now scrutinizing: “Suspending or expelling a convicted rapist is a slap on the wrist compared to what such a criminal would face in a court of law,” says Ben, a senior at Connecticut College.
But members of the Amherst community are now saying that perpetrators haven’t received even a ‘slap on the wrist’.
A circulating petition to Amherst’s president and Board of Trustees reads, “To our knowledge, in the history of Amherst College, students were never or almost never expelled for sexually assaulting other students. This represents an evaluation of sexual assault as a minor crime.”
President Biddy Martin (pictured) has been quick to respond to both the op-ed and the petition with a letter to the community, saying that policies that “have left survivors feeling that they were badly served…must change and change immediately.”
Furthermore, she promises, “There will be consequences for any problems we identify, either with procedures or personnel.”
Reyes has recieved e-mails from top college administrators, wanting to work with Epifano to discover the flaws in their own institution’s policies.
“Angie’s story shows that there is a wrong way for administrations to respond to victims…As long as assaults persist, schools must deal with then in an honest, effective and compassionate manner,” says Sam, Williams ’15.
No doubt, Epifano’s op-ed is a wake-up call to the world of higher education–and the students that it serves–about troubling attitudes towards sexual assault and its survivors. Meanwhile, the thousands of readers Epifano has already inspired continue to spread her story.
Following Angie’s lead, they refuse to be silent.
Photo Sources:
Amherst.edu
CornellSun.com