Meet a student reporter who challenged college Title IX failures
Hannah Epstein reflects on her year-long investigation, the resistance she faced and the power of student press
What began as a freshman’s disillusionment with the progressive ideals of her college campuses evolved into a year-long battle to expose a system failing its students.
To mark the Student Press Freedom Day this year, I spoke with Hannah Epstein, co-editor-in-chief of the Bi-College Newspaper at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges in Pennsylvania.
Her 2023 investigation revealed that the shared Title IX office at both colleges failed to follow the federal procedures legally required, especially when it came to denying students their right to a hearing.
It wasn’t easy. People refused to talk to her. Administrations pushed back on her information requests. And she constantly felt anxious — even the night before her article went to press.
“It kind of became an obsession,” Epstein said.
In this Q&A, Epstein told The Nutgraf how she knew this was a story worth pursuing, the obstacles she faced in getting it published, the impact her reporting had and what she learned along the way.
“99% of the time, administrative officials don’t fully know the laws they’re threatening you with,” she said. “And a lot of the time, student journalists and the student press are far more powerful than the administration.”
Epstein’s responses have been paraphrased and edited for clarity, concision and flow.
Tell me about your investigation.
Yeah, so the article was essentially the result of a year-long investigation into various allegations I heard from students about malpractice in the Title IX office at two colleges — Haverford College and Bryn Mawr College. At the time I was reporting, they shared a single Title IX office.
The story focused on three cases I outlined in detail, examining the processes the students went through and how those processes didn’t align with federal law and Title IX requirements.
My primary source was Jeanne Wolkiewicz, who was willing to go on the record, share her name, and tell her story. She became the focal point of the piece.
How did you first learn about the story?
It was my freshman year, and I don’t know how much you know about Bryn Mawr and Haverford, but they’re very small schools.
Bryn Mawr is a historically women’s college, while Haverford is coed. A lot of parties happen at Haverford, and the two schools function almost as one — students take classes at either, some even major at the other, and you can live on either campus.
I was a freshman at the time, and during orientation, my upperclassman leader sat us down before the first Haverford party of the year. She gave us a very sobering talk, warning us that Haverford parties were notorious for certain issues.
I don’t want to get into trouble with the school, but she made it clear that things like drink spiking and assault had been reported at these parties, and she emphasized that we needed to have a buddy system.
It kind of took me back a bit because I thought going to Bryn Mawr and Haverford, it would be very progressive colleges.
I walked away with two big questions: If this is such a pervasive issue, does the school know about it? And if they do, why isn’t anything being done? Those questions became the foundation of my investigation.
How did you know it was a story? Why did you pursue it?
I think it was more so like a sort of disillusionment. I had picked Bryn Mawr because of its reputation as a historically women’s college, believing that meant it would be different from other schools.
The college prided itself on being a progressive institution where women’s voices were heard. But what I was hearing suggested otherwise.
I don’t want to say I felt lied to, but I did feel like important information was being withheld — information that students, both current and prospective, deserved to know.
When did you first realize there were obstacles to getting the story published?
That was probably the longest part of the process. My investigation took a year, and much of that time was spent trying to gain people’s trust. Since I was a freshman, I had to figure out which upperclassmen knew more than I did.
The story went in a lot of different ways in the first few months — I was hearing opposing things, talking to people on deep backgrounds and getting tips from different friends.
I spoke with the administration pretty quickly on in the investigation, which, looking back, I probably wouldn’t do now. But I didn’t know any better at the time, so I went almost immediately to the Title IX office and asked them about their processes.
There was a point the summer before the article came out when I almost gave up. No one wanted to talk to me, the administration clearly didn’t want me working on it, and I was spending so much time on the story that I started questioning whether I should just focus on my academics instead. It kind of became an obsession.
Then, in the middle of the summer, Jeanne finally responded to me. I had found her through a Google form that was circulated on campus the previous year, and after reaching out three or four times, she finally got back to me.
That was when the story took a bigger turn and I was able to actually turn it into something.
What forms of pushback or intimidation did you face?
The biggest challenge was simply getting a hold of them. The Title IX coordinator wasn’t responding to my emails, so I had to go through the president’s office just to set up a meeting.
Then those meetings were cordial. Well, most of them are. One of them was not cordial. But essentially they just told me that they couldn’t tell me anything.
I would ask very basic, non-identifying questions, like how many students had reported Title IX violations and how many had faced repercussions. I wasn’t asking for names — just numbers — but I kept getting the same answers: Either they didn’t have the data or they weren’t allowed to share it.
Were there moments when you doubted whether you could finish the investigation?
I never felt like I shouldn’t get the story out because the administration would be mad. I didn’t care too much about what they thought.
But I did have moments of doubt when it came to getting people to talk to me. At the end of the day, I was just the conveyor of information — Jeanne was the one taking the biggest risk by speaking out.
There was a point where I kind of recognized that asking people to take the risk of going on the record and speaking to me was a pretty big ask. And I had to come to terms with the fact that it would be possible that people wouldn’t want to do that.
And I mean, I don’t think without my main source, I could have written the story and changes could have happened.
What impact did your reporting have?
The school never officially commented on it or released any official statements.
It became relatively large on both campuses, and a lot of people ended up coming forward on Instagram and into the newspaper after the article came out. But there was never an official administrative statement.
What I can tell you is that there were things that happened directly afterward, though I can't claim that they were related to the article. However, they did happen immediately following the publication.
For instance, the Title IX coordinator resigned, and the single Title IX office that served both Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges was split into two.
Haverford also held a sexual assault awareness month and education seminar, and they introduced a new page to their website detailing student rights. These were the main administrative actions that followed in the immediate aftermath.
What did you learn from this experience?
I think the first thing was realizing how important newspapers are, mainly because they give community members the power to tell their stories. That’s really invaluable.
Obviously, I’m proud of myself and the work I did with it, but more importantly, the thing the school didn’t want to get out wasn’t my personal opinions on Title IX or how they should be acting. It was the testimonies of other students who were speaking to me.
It is so important to have a space and a platform where community members can share their experiences because that’s really the whole point of a newspaper.
Beyond that, I learned that patience is incredibly important in journalism. You really have to be headstrong, hold your head up high and push forward.
And 99% of the time, administrative officials don’t fully know the laws they’re threatening you with. When organizations like the Student Press Law Center tell you, “That’s not how libel works,” that can be a really good defense.
What would you have done differently?
Obviously, the first one is I wouldn’t go to the administration right away because I think once they’re ticked off at something that you’re looking into. They tend to push back a bit more.
The primary thing is listening to everyone who comes to talk to you while also taking everything with a grain of salt. Making sure that every allegation a student shares has some kind of evidence to back it up is important. You can’t just mindlessly publish.
I don’t think that’s what I did in this case. However, if it hadn’t been for the Student Press Law Center, that very well could have been what I did, and having that guidance was super important.
I also got really scared when I was writing this article for the first time. But I’ve realized that most of the time, the administration doesn’t have the power they claim to have.
As long as you cover your tracks, ensure that nothing you’re doing is illegal, and hold yourself to the standards of major newspapers like The Washington Post — obviously, they’re not going to publish the story, but in the sense that those are the standards you follow — then you don’t have to worry.
Did you feel scared or anxious?
I think the night it came out, I was super on edge. There’s always that worry.
A lot of the time — whether intentional or not — just the way dynamics work, especially at colleges, is that as a student, you don’t feel as powerful as the administration.
When you’re writing something that challenges them, even if they’re not planning to take away your access to education or do anything extreme, that fear is still there because they hold that power.
So there was a lot of anxiety. I don’t think all of it was rational, but it was definitely there. And I had this fear about libel — like, what if that was the track they took? If I hadn’t been careful, it could have been. That was definitely stressful.
Any advice for student journalists in navigating similar things?
Keep going. That’s the big one — just hold your head up high and keep going.
The administration doesn’t have the power they say they do. At the end of the day, they’re just a group of people in a room.
And a lot of the time, student journalists and the student press are far more powerful than the administration. You can see that in cases like Stanford and Northwestern.
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📅 Student Press Freedom Day
The eighth annual Student Press Freedom Day is Thursday, Feb. 27. Join the Student Press Law Center in standing up for student journalists’ First Amendment rights. Here are the events and ways you can be involved.
Story Spotlight:
💭 After covering controversial stories, a student journalist serving the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary's College and Holy Cross College wrote in her “revelation of a lonely” news editor that she created “distance and animosity between myself and the students, admin and faculty I was congenial with” — and how she overcame that anxiety.
🎓 NYU student journalist Marta Hill called on journalism schools to better prepare students for handling harassment. She said she wasn’t prepared to “address the harassment I may face in the field.”
👀 Check out this early-career guide for entry-level journalists by Rachel Lobdell in partnership with the Reynolds Journalism Institute.
“In my own experience and in talking with other managers, the most common complaints are not about journalism skills,” Lobdell wrote. “They are about things like prioritization, time management, professional communication, relationship building, and receiving feedback.”
Featured Opportunities:
FOX 47 in Lansing, Michigan, is seeking a summer news intern.
BestColleges needs a remote student stories writer.
Retraction Watch, which covers science and research integrity, is seeking applications for its summer internship program until March 7.
The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists 2025 Student Conference is March 7-8, and it’s pay what you can for both members and non-members.
Community Impact in Texas is looking for a summer editorial intern.
Apply to the 2025-26 Student Media Challenge by the Solutions Journalism Network by March 14.
Texas Highways is looking for summer editorial interns to be based in Austin. Deadline’s March 15.
Chatwan,
Wonderful story, so well-written and Hannah Epstein is doing wonderful work.
It made me not only inspired but emotional. I also read more of Hannah's work and - wow. Such great journalism, on behalf of both of you!! Student journalists can change the world :)