Speech given during the Healing Fire held on Thursday, Oct. 18th 2012.
My name is Ali Simeone, and I’m a Peer Advocate of Sexual Respect. I want to let you all know that the Peer Advocates are here to support you through your experiences; we know this past week has been especially trying — please don’t hesitate to talk to any of us. Also, I am a co-facilitator for Break the Silence, a support group for Survivors of Sexual Disrespect. If anyone needs to speak to me about these issues, I am a resource.
In the aftermath of the two articles regarding sexual misconduct on campus, first Dana Bolger’s about the TD t-shirt, and then, yesterday, Angie Epifano’s emotional article concerning her experiences on campus, there has been an outcry from the student body. Please, do not misunderstand my intentions in this commentary; these articles, these experiences, they deserve shock and they deserve outrage.
Trigger Warning: This letter mentions an incident of sexual assault.
My name is Alexis, and I’m a former Mount Holyoke College student. In 2011, I was raped at Amherst College and went through the disciplinary hearing process.
I would just like to personally thank you for being so open and willing to change both the Amherst College disciplinary hearing process for sexual assault cases and the overall culture at Amherst College. It seems misogynistic and rape culture has been a long-standing problem, not just at Amherst College, but all over the world.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed and contributed to a conversation emerging within the student body (and engaging the school’s faculty) about sexual disrespect and assault. A lot of the focus of the discourse has been on the clear need for systemic and administrative change. However, I think that this ongoing conversation presents us with an opportunity to modify the way the men of Amherst think about sex and, more broadly, about our own gender.
I’m a Peer Advocate of Sexual Respect.
That title means a lot of different things to different people. Some people will say, “They’re like the SHEs, aren’t they?” Some people will say, “Oh they did a workshop in my dorm once.” Others will say, “They helped me so much,” or, as I hear once in a blue moon: “The what? PAs? We have something like that on campus?” My freshman year it meant an opportunity to make a difference on the campus I’d just stepped onto several weeks prior, to fight against something that truly needed change.
President Carolyn “Biddy” Martin writes in to update the student body.
William A. McClung, Executive Director of the Theta Delta Chi International Fraternity writes about the group on campus identified as Theta Delta Chi.
The off-campus group that styles itself “Theta Delta Chi” is not affiliated with Theta Delta Chi International Fraternity. Theta Delta Chi has no chapter at Amherst College. We deplore their improper use of our name.
