<p>A quick Google search for “Dartmouth sexual assaults” is also eye-opening: [Dartmouth</a> College Threatens To Discipline Students For Protesting Sexual Assault | ThinkProgress](<a href=“http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/04/27/1930821/dartmouth-board-of-trustees-chair-equates-protests-with-rape-threats/?mobile=nc]Dartmouth”>http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/04/27/1930821/dartmouth-board-of-trustees-chair-equates-protests-with-rape-threats/?mobile=nc)</p>
<p>It seems that addressing sexual assault has become a major topic for discussion over the past year, at a number of colleges. We can talk about whether it’s specific to colleges in the rural Northeast because there isn’t anything to do other than drink (but it clearly isn’t) and we can talk about whether something about Amherst or Dartmouth or UNC has created an epidemic of rape, but then we would be ignoring the larger fact that many people don’t seem to want to admit: Rape happens on college campuses everywhere. </p>
<p>After Angie Epifano wrote her piece for The Amherst Student, I read comments by people proclaiming there was no way their daughter would ever be allowed to step foot on the Amherst campus, and comments by people proclaiming that the administrators had to be fired. I don’t think that any of these frames will ever help this problem. Sure, anger is well-justified, but let’s direct this anger toward the situation, not toward institutions and especially not individuals. There’s only ever room to focus on either blaming or understanding how common structural and situational factors are contributing to the incidence of rape.</p>