Columbia University senior Emma Sulkowicz, 21, says she was raped in her own bed at the beginning of her sophomore year. This week, two years after the alleged assault, Sulkowicz, a visual-arts major, has made a promise to carry her mattress around campus every day as part of her senior thesis. It is, she says, a symbol of the burden sexual-assault survivors carry with them every day.

“The act of carrying the mattress from inside my room out into the light has mirrored the way my life has changed, as I’ve brought my personal story out into the light,” Sulkowicz told TIME. “This project is a way to heal one of the most difficult things that happened to me. As I will build muscle and get stronger, hopefully I will also build emotional strength.”

Sulkowicz started the performance-art project on Tuesday, and she said she is determined to continue carrying the mattress wherever she goes — to class, the library, the gym — as long as her alleged rapist is still on campus. That means her project could last until graduation day in May 2015 — unless her alleged assailant is either expelled or chooses to leave the school. Last year, Sulkowicz and two other women reported the same person to the university. All three cases were dismissed.

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[–] 59 points 2 days ago (1 child)

As the linked article didn't include any photos of what was being discussed...

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  • [–] 56 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    What an absolute shit university Columbia has become.

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  • [–] [S] 345 points 3 days ago (19 children)

    The president of Columbia at the time refused to shake her hand when she crossed the stage at graduation.

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  • [–] 31 points 2 days ago

    The story's lead image, of the person that famously always carried the mattress... is of her not holding a mattress?

    Did we do a journalism, Dad?

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  • [–] 251 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    All she had to do was trick him into saying ‘Free Palestine’ and Columbia not only would have expelled him but they would also ensure he never got a job in any top firm

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    [–] 175 points 3 days ago (19 children)

    God, the internet was fucking horrible when this happened. I remember constant comments about how she was lying for attention or just regretted it. Pre-MeToo era was a hellhole.

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  • [–] 28 points 3 days ago (4 children)

    I think a lot of people just don’t have any experience with the criminal justice system and assume that if there was no conviction he must be innocent.

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  • [–] 21 points 3 days ago (2 children)

    @ayyy @Catoblepas

    Based on what I read, the corollary is also true. Just because somebody did time doesn't mean they did the crime. Cops use all kinds of bullshit tricks to get convictions. It seems like every week it turns out shaken baby syndrome isn't real, or excited delirium, or voice stress analysis. Shit, I read that barrel signatures aren't even real. I'm not sure about that one, only having seen it one place, but I'm willing to believe it's been a con all along that it's possible to match a fired bullet to the gun that shot it. They cheat that badly.

    In the US, at least, the criminal justice system seems to care only about clearing cases, not solving crime. Taking the profit motive away might clean some of this up.

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    [–] 13 points 2 days ago*

    Good for her

    This is completely unacceptable. The fact that multiple women reported the same guy is a huge red flag

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  • [–] 69 points 3 days ago (56 children)

    In January 2015, New York's U.S. senator Kirsten Gillibrand invited Sulkowicz to attend the 2015 State of the Union Address.[5] Families Advocating for Campus Equality said the invitation was "undeserved and violates the principles of confidentiality and gender equality of Title IX",

    Wow, TIL about this asshole NGO that defends rapists

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Families_Advocating_for_Campus_Equality

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  • [–] 32 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (54 children)

    Well after reading the wiki, I wouldn’t call it that:

    Specifically, FACE objects to many schools' Title IX proceedings that deny students basic procedures traditionally provided to those defending themselves against allegations of wrongdoing, such as: not being informed of the specific accusations, denied access to the complaint, witness statements, and evidence, and not being permitted to contact and present witnesses.

    I think due process is one of the fundamental principles of our society, be for it murder, rape or petty theft.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 days ago (3 children)

    This reminds me of a reddit post from a while ago. Dude is going to a university in the US. He's randomly contacted by campus police to let him know that a student has taken out a restraining order on him. He's a graduate student, and the student who took out the restraining order is from one of his classes that's typically for undergrads. Other than sharing that class, he doesn't know the student. Never even spoken to them. He's on a student visa, if he's expelled, he'll likely be deported. He's not allowed to speak to the student and campus police won't even tell him why the restraining order is in place.

    After doing some investigation on his own, he finds out the student is dating one of his roommates, who he also doesn't know very well. The roommate is stalking the student, and another roommate is helping the stalker.

    The student who took out the restraining order had seen him with the stalker at some point and, because the class they share is typically for undergrads, assumed he only took the class to keep an eye on the student for the stalker.

    He was able to go to his graduate advisor about it and luckily it all got cleared up, the student withdrew the restraining order. But his whole academic career was nearly derailed because a random person was able to take out a restraining order on him with zero direct evidence, and there was no established means by which he could defend himself.

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  • [–] 11 points 3 days ago* (8 children)

    They are given due process, including access to lawyers, evidence, and witnesses. They're even allowed to take the case to court. All public universities are required to offer full due process when expelling students.

    Private universities are not required to do so because they're not run by the government.

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  • [–] 39 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

    It wasn't the mattress that she was raped on.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattress_Performance_(Carry_That_Weight)

    It was the same model, though.

    Purchased online from Tall Paul's Tall Mall, the 50-lb (23-kg), dark-blue, extra-long twin mattress is of the kind Columbia places in its dorms, similar to the one on which Sulkowicz said that Nungesser had raped her

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  • [–] 42 points 3 days ago (40 children)
  • [–] [S] 131 points 3 days ago (15 children)

    Yes it is. We're in the TIL community.

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