Angie Epifano, a former student at

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

, gained widespread media attention and millions of page views after she wrote an essay on her personal experience of

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

that was published in the Amherst student newspaper, ''The Amherst Student''. After the publication of her essay, Amherst College began investigating its sexual assault procedures, and women from other college campuses in the United States came forward to file federal complaints under Title IX and to form groups to reduce sexual assault on college campuses.

Background

In 2011, Epifano was a

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

at Amherst College

majoring An academic major is the academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits. A student who successfully completes all courses required for the major qualifies for an undergraduate degree. The word ''major'' (also called ''conc ...

in African Art history. During her freshman year, she told '' NPR'' that she was invited to watch a movie by an acquaintance and fell asleep during the movie (she reported she had not been drinking). When she awoke, she reported that the acquaintance was sexually assaulting her; the next morning she left and tried not to think about the assault. Her alleged assailant was never legally prosecuted or sanctioned by Amherst College. Nine months later she went to one of Amherst College's sexual assault

guidance counselor A school counselor is a professional who works in primary (elementary and middle) schools or secondary schools to provide academic, career, college access/affordability/admission, and social-emotional competencies to all students through a school ...

s. After some time and after seeing a second guidance counselor, she admitted to thinking about suicide and was forcibly admitted by Amherst College into a psychiatric ward for five days. She returned to school just before the end of the spring semester after she placed a

restraining order A restraining order or protective order, is an order used by a court to protect a person in a situation involving alleged domestic violence, child abuse, assault, harassment, stalking, or sexual assault. Restraining and personal protection or ...

on the person she alleged committed the assault. She subsequently dropped out of Amherst College and started working on a

dude ranch A guest ranch, also known as a dude ranch, is a type of ranch oriented towards visitors or tourism. It is considered a form of agritourism. History Guest ranches arose in response to the romanticization of the American West that began to occur ...

in Wyoming during the fall of 2012. It was during this time that she became frustrated that she had left Amherst College without attempting to improve the support system for victims of sexual assault. She decided to do something about it by writing an essay on her experiences of the assault, with other students, and of the sexual assault support system at Amherst College.

Epifano's essay

On 17 October 2012, ''The Amherst Student'' published an essay by Epifano on her personal experience of a

at Amherst College. She reported that she was raped by a male acquaintance on May 25, 2011, in a

dormitory A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university s ...

on the

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...

of Amherst College. Nine months after the alleged rape occurred, a friend suggested that she seek counseling. When she eventually did so, she reported in her essay that a campus sexual assault counselor told her "In short I was told: No you can't change dorms, there are too many students right now. Pressing charges would be useless, he's about to graduate, there's not much we can do. Are you SURE it was rape?" She described how the counseling center focused on her apparent psychological instability and placed her in a psychiatric hospital. Within the first week of publication of the essay, it received over 370,000 hits.

Response

Immediately following the publication of Epifano's essay, Amherst College began reviewing its policies for handling sexual assault cases, brought in psychological experts, assigned new investigators, and started a "sexual respect" website. Amherst President Carolyn "Biddy" Martin stated "We need to do everything in our power to become a leader in encouraging victims to report sexual assault". Amherst College formed a Special Oversight Committee on Sexual Misconduct, which produced a critical report of the way sexual assault cases are handled at Amherst. In November, 2013, Epifano and an anonymous former female former student filed a 113-page federal sexual assault complaint under Title IX. Subsequently, other complaints were filed under Title IX and the Clery Act. The complaints allege that Amherst and other schools violated Title IX by not providing a college environment that protects female students from discrimination and that the schools also violated the Clery Act by not keeping and making public information on campus crimes. After the publication of Epifano's essay, a group of activists formed "Know Your IX" website and group. ''NPR'' contacted Amherst President Martin during the first week of April 2014 for comment and she replied:

Criticism

Wendy Kaminer writing for '' The Atlantic'' questioned how accurately Epifano could recall all of the events she reported in her essay. She concludes that "I'm not criticizing or judging Epifano for being acutely frightened and depressed" but rather that "I'm simply suggesting that different women react differently, according to their different circumstances, strengths and vulnerabilities."

References

External links

Epifano’s essay

KNOW YOUR IX
{{DEFAULTSORT:Epifano, Angie Living people Amherst College alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Sexual abuse