[Trigger warning for sexual assault]
Dear Amherst College community:
The photographs below feature eleven men and women who were sexually assaulted at Amherst College and the words that members of our community said to them following their assaults. Not every survivor is holding his or her own sign; some of the students have transferred or dropped out of Amherst College out of fear of their attackers’ continued presence on campus or from lack of options in the face of an unsympathetic administration.
Many of you were shocked to read Angie Epifano’s story. Most of us in the survivor community at Amherst were deeply saddened but not surprised to learn of her experience with the College administration, since it so closely mirrored our own.
I have followed our college community’s reactions to Angie’s story. The outrage toward our school’s administration is just and appropriate. That our administration owes a formal, public acknowledgment of, and apology for, its treatment of survivors goes without saying. That it is time that we demand from our administration transparency, dialogue, and priority of students’ safety over Amherst’s image likewise goes without saying.
In the photographs below, survivors reveal hurtful words said to them by Amherst administrators—and also by teammates, roommates, and friends.
In our impulse to point a finger outward at the Amherst administration, let us not forget to look inward at our own complicity in the creation of a culture that gives Angie’s rapist the power to act and our administration the power to silence and dismiss her experience.
I urge you to see the words in these photographs—see them, be angry—and then recall your own words. I think we have all, at some time, in some way—through our jokes, our questions, our arguments—silenced a survivor. I think we have all, at some time, in some way, exerted our respective privileges—male, white, heterosexual, cisgendered, able-bodied—to silence our peers. As a woman, I have been silenced and shut down in the classroom, at parties, among friends, even in planning meetings leading up to Friday’s rally to support survivors. As a white, upper-middle class, heterosexual individual, I know I have silenced and shut down my peers.
Angie’s article has revealed to the rest of the Amherst community what survivors here have known since our own rapes: it is time to demand radical change from our administration. What I hope you will read in Angie’s article and see in the photographs below is that it is time to demand transformation from yourself.
Let these stories be a portal for self-examination and growth.
-Dana Bolger
Photographs by Jisoo Lee
Project by It Happens Here — Dana Bolger, Kinjal Patel, Sonum Dixit
Cross-posted with permission from ACVoice
This project was created with the influence and permission of Project Unbreakable
it happens here 
[…] Cross-posted with permission from It Happens Here. […]
http://www.playscripts.com/play?playid=761
I wrote this play, adapted from my own film script HE SAID/SHE SAID, which was made as an orientation tool for use with incoming college freshman at Vassar College by Children’s Media Project.
I interviewed rape victims at Bard, Vassar, Suny New Paltz, and gleaned transcripts from students at Duke University. The statistics are not getting better.
It has been years since Amherst produced a V-Day event on campus & it is long overdue. There is so much work that V-Day has been doing to help reform sexual assault policies on college campuses. We partnered with SAFER (Students Active for Ending Rape) to begin the Campus Accountability Project to help reform schools nationwide.
http://www.vday.org/cap
https://www.facebook.com/groups/campusaccountability/
If there is an organized group of students on your campus looking for help on how to go about reforming your school’s administrative policies, please contact me at shael@vday.org or 917 449 8708.
Shael Norris
I’m sickened to read about this. I’m 44, and I went to college in the Take Back the Night era. I can’t believe that 1) animals are still raping and 2) administrators are telling “girls” to get over it. (Work at Starbucks until he graduates?!!)
What a bunch of privileged pricks.
I have a suggestion for the student orientations. How about the local police do a presentation on rape awareness/prevention instead of administrators who want to deny it ever happens? I know campuses have their own cops, but they aren’t really The Law. What happens if you call 911 on a campus? It can’t be that the real police have to defer to “public safety,” or whatever they call themselves these days. I’d rather have evidence collected by a real officer. Don’t forget these creeps who rape college students are probably raping locals, too!
Good for these students for coming forward. They are helping themselves and helping others by raising awareness.
I hope the big donors take note of the lousy response of the administration.
I think the presentations should be made to first graders. Literally. Humans are animals. However, we prefer to live in a civilized society where consent means something. I think the notion of consent must be instilled long before hormones are present to trump reason. Males in particular must understand (with growing specifics as they get older) that a sexual partner’s consent must be unequivocal and does not, cannot, exist is the presence of alocohol, physical or social dominance, etc.
Sounds like someone needs an EEOC investigation of potential Title IX violations, or at the very least an investigation by the administration into what the College’s policies are and why they weren’t followed. And if it just happens that they WERE followed, changing the policies is the number one place to start. These types of acts are both foreseeable and correctable. It is a tragedy that more has not been done since the first to prevent so many others.
[…] This series shows quite a bit about the level of violence at Amherst, but even more so about Amherst’s treatment of its survivors. Take a look. For the rest of the photos and an extended explanation by Bolger, go to It Happens At Amherst. […]
[…] in the immediate aftermath of the publication of Epifano’s story, and yesterday they posted a photo essay of survivors (and allies) “featur[ing] eleven men and women who were sexually assaulted at […]
[…] fire for their gross negligence towards their female students who have suffered sexual assault, students put together a photo project highlighting some of the deeply troubling responses they got from school officials and friends when […]
For starters, by putting this issue in the spotlight, the victims are giving the college the chance to really make serious changes. And if the college does embrace responsibility and pursue change, that would be significant.
Any adult who tells a student that the rapist is graduating soon and, therefore, the victim should just move on, is highly irresponsible and should be removed from their position. Furthermore, the supervisor for that adult should be held accountable as it’s a disgrace that that attitude should be considered acceptable.
A great deal of this activity is allowed because there is not enough education focused on prevention. Furthermore, alcohol continues to be an enormous factor in this equation and colleges are not doing enough, if anything, to educate their students on the dangers of alcohol. The school administrators turn a blind eye to excess alcohol consumption and this is nationwide.
What no one should forget for a moment is that colleges are all about money. And if victims can impact the school financially, that’s when there is likely to be long term change in the community.
It is time we ask thoughtful questions about pervasive overconsumption of alcohol and the risk of sexual assault. It can be argued that the number one date rape drug on campus is beer. Thank you for this touching and tragic website.
My daughter was sexually assaulted this year at Oberlin College. She’s currently in the drawn out (6+ months) process of trying to get a final ruling. It’s an ugly mess!! He was found guilty by the panel of peers, but now we have to wait for an appeals process. Meanwhile, he’s allowed to roam freely on campus, while my daughter is terrified to leave her room! She’s started a blog on tumblr: carson-blog.tumblr.com
I’d made two posts to the AMherst blog. I was a child victim of rape, and emotional abuse. I understand that the stigma and pain last a very long time, and can have lifelong effects on the victim. There needs somehow to be a way to get camups/acquaintence rape adjudicated off the campus and in the courts. Rape is a crime. It is too often treated as a ‘Boys will by boys,’ issue, such as hate crimes-which means very tlitle is done at all. My idea is that an umbrella group adopt a “Standing Operations Proecdure” which includes my first recommendations. Those were initially, for a victim, to go with a friend, with notebook and pen in full view, to make a report of the attack, and thence to the hospital for a rape kit. Press charges, then get a lawyer, hopefully with parental support, for a civil suit as well. I’ve taught at several universities and colleges. Many college administrators are notorious cowards: their goal is not to seek justice but to prevent bad press. Examples abound. It is a rare case when such administrators become advocates for the victim, though I understand there are well-intentioned people who work on campus who are not only sympathetic but try to help. If one of my daughters were attacked or raped on a campus, there is no way I’d expect an administration to provide an accpetable rememdy unless there were was evidence of a crime linked to the accused, and the criminal justice system has had it’s say. There is so much economic and societal elitism in this country now, to expect anything but injustice from an inhouse solution done by the school is wishful thinking indeed.
[…] spring, she and a few other women created It Happens Here, a Web site about sexual violence at Amherst, and this month she drew a wide audience for two items […]
Is there such a thing as a false accusation of rape? Is there such a thing as innocent until proven guilty? Is there such a thing as the burden of proof resting on the prosecution?
In the world of this website, apparently the answer is “no.”
To be clear: rape is a horrible crime that should be punished without mercy. But in the United States of America, one person’s word against another’s just isn’t good enough to convict someone of a crime.
http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_campus_rape.html
But that’s not the point. These comments aren’t ones that discussed evidence or talking to police. They’re incredibly insensitive and abusive comments to anyone who states they were raped whether it’s provable in court or not. You don’t tell someone who reports being raped that they “don’t count as a survivor”, are “paranoid” or “a slut”, you don’t tell a student who reports being raped that they have to pay for their own therapy because they’re “too complicated”, you don’t downplay the rape as less than rape because he was drunk or you sat on his bed 2 weeks earlier. You don’t ask why they couldn’t fight their assailant off, or why don’t they get a job at Starbucks and come back in a year. You don’t ask “Are you sure it was rape?” even if the other party has a different depiction of the situation, that’s the most patronizing, belittling question I can think of. Even if there’s no hard evidence that rape occurred, when someone tells you they were raped, you listen and offer support if you’re a peer, and add in resources and legal options both on and off-campus if you’re an administrator. These people are anonymous, and I of course don’t know the specifics of their stories, but the responses they got from both peers and administrators were hideous.
You need another pseudonym if you expect to be taken as something other than a troll.
Rape is a CRIME folks. Instead of going to the deans and counselors you should encourage the victim to, with a friend who has pen and notebook, to go to the police
and dthen to the hospital for a rape kit exam. Then, press charges.
Those sorry excuses for administrators should have been forced to resign: if friends are unsympathetic you should get new friends. Consider filing civil suits with large numbers: things will change.
You must stand up for yourself. Don’t cower, don’t think of yourself as unworthy-its not your fault. jThis epidemic will not stop unless we do something about this attitude that it is alright to do this horrible act.
Yet another example of colleges trying to keep students under the “bubble” to avoid an negative publicity. Penn State anyone?
I am so glad to see that the report of this in the NYT is now one of the most forwarded e-mails. Kudos to those who were courageous enough to step forward and bring this to the public. I am very sorry that the NYT did not open the article to comments.
I do not understand why a rape is not reported directly to the local police. Rape is a crime. Colleges must provide as much support as possible (and clearly that did not even happen here), but there should be a mandate that these support offices and staff are required to let the student know the steps for taking the report of a rape to the proper officials. Colleges should not play a role in determining a rape. A peer review group — get real!
A plea to all students at colleges and universities (including my two children at a highly selective liberal arts college), if you suffer a brutal assault, go to a trusted friend or call a parent. Then call 911 and go to the hospital. And get a therapist outside of the college community. Take a leave of absence if you need to — but deal with this brutality in “the present” or it will haunt you for the rest of your life.
I am sending thoughts of strength and healing to the far too many college students who find themselves in this horrific situation.
Let’s bring our voices together for these student and be heard. Take Back the Night and Take Back the Day.
Major Randall has it just right. These assaults need to be handled in the criminal justice system, not the college justice system.
Reminds me of the Catholic Church.
Do not let them silence you and convince you in any way that rape is ever okay ever! It is act of violence and power, and never the victims fault. I am a 57 year old mother and I am sickened and ashamed of the people in this society who allow this violent act to go unpunished or try to make it the woman’s fault. And like poster Richard Randall said, go to the police – this is a crime and don’t let anyone intimidate you into not pressing charges against your attacker – they deserve to be punished and you may save another woman (or man) from being raped. You deserve a lot of credit for starting this blog.
In 1982, during the fall of my sophomore year at Amherst College, I received a threatening letter and was stalked by a male student in my class. The administration’s response to this threat to my safety and the stalking was also callous. The dean I met with tried to turn the situation into a “lovers’ spat” even though the young man in question and I had never been romantically involved. I was offered no assistance or security. The other student was never reprimanded, and the remainder of my college career at Amherst was deeply affected by this experience and the lack of any support from the administration. The only recourse I have now is to say a firm “no” when I get those annual fundraising calls from the college. So sorry to hear that things haven’t changed!
1) I am not actually asking this question, but I’m curious: If I were to say, “Why didn’t you go to the police with the stalking?” is that being insensitive, or is that me exerting my white male privilege to silence you?
2) What sort of action would you have liked to see taken?
In 1976, I was assaulted on the University of Cincinnati campus after leaving a rehearsal. I was groped by a stranger in a stairwell. This had happened to enough other students that it became a news item. The head of campus police was quoted calling these assaults “fanny patting.” We were furious.
[…] Surviving, at Amherst College. […]
Hi, Trying to reach Dana Bolger. I’m a reporter at New England Public Radio, and I host our local Morning Edition. Would like to interview you this week regarding your blog, and the culture of sexual violence on campus. Sent you a tweet as well. Thanks very much, Jill Kaufman, jkaufman@nepr.net
Every Woman Has a Story.
Find Your Voice.
Tell Your Story.
Every Story Counts.
http://www.everystorycounts.com
[…] yes, like Jenny, they do face social issues, such as sexual assault. Like Amherst (see NYT), Kenyon has a mixed record of handling such cases. Many readers of HF said […]
First of all, let me salute the survivors for their bravely making their experiences with sexual assault public. I applaud their daring to expect that the current crop of college administrators would take these crimes more seriously than college administrators have ever done. I am not too optimistic though. Many schools lie blatantly to the government and to their students and report zero survivors of sexual assault on their campus. Other colleges will (grudgingly) admit that there are “a few” survivors of sexual assault committed by students on their campuses. These pronouncements are a slap in the face to students who have been assaulted and who know students who have been assaulted. Meanwhile no college administrator has ever condemned the acts of student perpetrators or announced just how the institution will deal with the students, faculty or staff who commit these felonies. In essence, rape on campus is a perpetrator-less crime.
Our grandmothers would recognize the “rape prevention” effort at colleges. In their day it was said of a girl or woman, “She got herself pregnant” or even that “She got herself raped.” On campus, this hasn’t changed. Schools aren’t addressing the huge numbers of crimes committed by students on their campuses and certainly not doing enough including working with local police to help bring perpetrators of sexual assault to justice. reporting to police is an anathema to college administrators.
Schools are not even mandating yearly, mandatory education sessions for all students especially male students who will commit almost all sexual assaults. The (not so old) whitewash of “Not our boys,” or “Not here” continues. There was a brief, era in the early 1990’s, where a few schools recognized that all their students needed good sex education and rape prevention education to compensate for the near-absolute failure of parents, middle schools, high schools and clergy to address these issues.
I have asked thousands of survivors how they would like schools to respond to their assault. Most say that they 1) want the school to take them seriously, 2) that they want the school to talk to the perpetrators and help them understand how wrong their acts were, 3) they don’t want him to do the same thing to someone else, and they want to be left alone by him. (I am not prescribing how any or all survivors “should” respond. I mention this because from institutional unwillingness to take survivors seriously you would think survivors are demanding the death penalty.)
Why do rape victims go to the school administration instead of calling the police??? If someone had been stabbed, shot, or killed, would witnesses just waltz into the dean’s office to report those crimes? Then why is rape, a heinous crime, treated as less than homicide or assault with a lethal weapon? Come on, people, call 911! Rape changes you forever!
You will have PTSD, nightmares, and hurtful memories for the rest of your life. So why should you settle for anything less than at least rape charges against the criminal?! Let him have that on his records to haunt his future as well.
That said, I’m not saying that the school administration and staff must not be educated about the damages of rape. The psychologist who “assisted” you should ashamed of him/herself. I’m so very sorry that you had to hear such stupidity from the professional supposed to be the most empathic and understanding of your pain.
Simone, I have heard of cases where the rape victim was told the police didn’t have jurisdiction over events happening on school property (usually false). That may explain, at least in some cases, why the police are not called.
Thank you. My assault happened a decade ago, and I thought it was just me who was told “Are you sure you want to press charges? It might be better if you don’t.” To see the bravery of all the people here who have been assaulted or made to feel they have no rights or that it was their fault, you inspire and amaze me. Thank you.
Reblogged this on The Desert of the Real and commented:
check this out
Wow… Some days I just want to spit, knowing there are people this insensitive and stupid out there. Other days, I want to become Dexter and start getting rid of them!
Like Cindy Hecht, I am a veteran of those early days of the school’s coeducation. I am indeed fortunate that I never had to cope with physical assault or sexual threat while I was at Amherst, but I think that it is worth saying (and I have heard this from others) that all this seems appallingly familiar to me in relationship to the overall culture of the school. I, and I suspect many other women, were simply made to feel ashamed to be women at Amherst. And, because Amherst is populated with a lot of extremely intelligent, tactically minded-folks, it was never as simple as being made to feel as if we were “second class citizens.” Instead, it was clear that there was just no real place for women as women at Amherst. It’s no coincidence that my senior year, a group of my classmates and I — women and one gay man — “exiled” ourselves to off-campus living in Northampton. I’m appalled, but somehow not truly surprised that the insidious, endemic, subtle, and complicated misogyny that characterized a significant aspect of my life at Amherst for four years is still with the school. Nope, no donations from me either – I can’t fault the intellectual training I received at Amherst, but I was never really part of it. Good luck to Biddy Martin in trying to change that. Nearly two centuries of institutional culture will not be transformed overnight.
Some of these signs display tactless comments, but others seem pretty unreasonable only if you are picturing them in the worst possible context.
Example 1: Taking time off- If you have a he said/she said case that cannot result in action against the alleged assailant, and you are devastated by it and unable to go to class, getting away from the situation until the assailant is gone is a reasonable thing to suggest. I mean, what *is* the alternative? Stay and be miserable?
Example 2: “So, that’s why you’re paranoid.” may be phrased brusquely but if the victim is seeing rapists everywhere, that probably shows and generates that kind of comment.
It feels like you want an unrealistic level of massive unquestioning acceptance and support for anyone claiming a rape. Clearly one’s friends should believe and support you, but school officials and police are *supposed* to be more dispassionate and skeptical, not only of rape but *any* reported crimes. To try to frame that as some exertion of privilege is completely boneheaded.
My daughter just sent her early action application in. Now that I have read this she will be attending if accepted. Jut appalling.
As a rape survivor I thank you for this amazing blog, and for giving survivors a chance to speak out. It is forums like this that truly lead to change.
I read yesterday that the former president of Penn State had been indicted yesterday for perjury in the Sandusky case. I truly believe that counter-action is the way to help stop these atrocities, and that connecting with other groups on other campuses might help start a nation-wide movement. To the victims, thanks for the courage to come forward and tell your stories.
I have another idea but don’t wish to discuss on this site yet but can be contacted via my e-mail if anyone is interested.
[…] a blog post, the series’ founders note they were inspired by Project Unbreakable, a popular Tumblr with a […]
It is so very infrequent that I feel this way, but I’m shocked. Shocked that the Dean of this institution was using his “outside voice” and actually vocalizing these ignorant, callous, outrageous comments. Perhaps he was thinking if anyone discussed it in public it would be yet another instance of “He said, s/he said”? I am a rape survivor as well. The attack took place on a college campus. I received some of the same types of idiotic commentary in the collegiate setting but these responses are way over the top. Mad respect to the people participating in this project and illuminating the issue, even though it’s so painful. You ease the pain of others.
[…] a blog post, the series’ founders note they were inspired by Project Unbreakable, a popular Tumblr with a […]
For all of the brave women engaging in this fight against Amherst- THANK YOU. Your courage is inspiring and your mission is unrelenting, and for this I am extremely supportive and grateful. Amherst should be absolutely ashamed of itself and I think your extraordinary photo expose turns Amherst’s cruelty and victim-blaming methods on its head. You’re doing something productive and constructive with your pain and frustration, and there is nothing more admirable.
Know that you have so much support being sent your way from all over this country. As a survivor myself, I commend you for making even those away from Amherst feel safe.
Thanks from the bottom of my heart for your unwavering commitment to this cause. GO STRONG!
[…] spring, she and a few other women created It Happens Here, a Web site about sexual violence at Amherst, and this month she drew a wide audience for two items […]
[…] off and get a job at Starbucks until he graduates.” Read more here, and don’t miss this student website featuring student victims of sexual assault who have “come out” about what happened to […]
[…] More on the Amherst Rape Case: The Whole Community […]
[…] forward, like Dana Bolger. Bolger is another survivor of rape at Amherst College. She has created a website that has become a public journal for past rape survivors to share their stories. These entries […]
[…] forward, like Dana Bolger. Bolger is another survivor of rape at Amherst College. She has created a website that has become a public journal for past rape survivors to share their stories. These entries […]
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[…] SMOC report comes in response to a series of sexual violence survivors’ testimonies of administrative disregard, neglect and abuse following their assaults. […]
Reblogged this on Kerry Headley and commented:
My thesis reading is in two days! In the meantime, check this out.
[…] by publishing pictures of posters like her own. Although reminiscent of projects like “Surviving, at Amherst College,” “Surviving in Numbers” offers a unique focus: victims’ […]
[…] and Swarthmore are two more colleges that have come out on Team Rape: College Edition, joining Amherst, UNC-Chapel Hill, Dartmouth, Wesleyan (home of “The Rape Factory” Beta Theta Pi), and Yale […]
Since the 1980 DU rapes- EVERY YEAR?? NO KIDDING!!!
the same college supported Apartheid in the ’70’s.
The Lord Jeff’s is the team name…
Why is it shocking at ALL that you were used this way – there?
I was diversity at Choate & Amherst—-’70’s & ’80’s
I’m sorry it takes a GROWN UP to be afraid to go to Amherst-
I was a girl there once, too.
KUDOS for making sense- FINALLY- after all.
Patricia Longo- Class of 1984. Amherst College SURVIVOR.
Excellent article. I will be facing some of these issues as well.
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