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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[–] 67 points 1 day 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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  • [–] 33 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day 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 22 hours 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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  • [–] 5 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

    That’s why you shouldn’t let university staff do police work or become Dredd (judge, jury & executioner). Professionals have trained for years to get this stuff right but “campus police” thinks they can do it without any proper training or investigation.

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  • [–] 4 points 18 hours ago (1 child)

    "Campus Police" are regular police (for all that's worth), not rent-a-cops. Their jurisdiction is University and University-related policing. Think of the University as being its own city.

    I teach nights at a university and UPD is pretty great. The city cops are very much out to get people, whereas the UPD has a very light touch. They'll bust a party with a bunch of 19yo Kids drinking too much and getting loud, and tell them to keep it down and stay safe, while offering to call a non-police volunteer to drive anyone home for free.

    Parking Services (not part of UPD) can get go suck on a tailpipe though. Fuck those guys.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 day 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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  • [–] 15 points 1 day ago (6 children)

    They are given due process

    That’s in contradiction to what the Wikipedia page shows.

    Private universities are not required to do so

    So many of them do not. Why does not being run by the government exempt schools from applying basic human rights?

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  • [–] 5 points 1 day ago (5 children)

    So many of them do not. Why does not being run by the government exempt schools from applying basic human rights?

    Your question is a little hyperbolic since what your talking about is title IX specifically, not “human rights” in general.

    You can read about title IX exemptions here.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (40 children)

    Due process protects you from the government. You don't get due process when you get kicked out of a private business or university for misbehaving. They can kick you out for no reason at all.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 day ago* (39 children)

    If you misbehave, sure, but this is not misbehaving. This is a crime. One that hasn’t been proven to have happened at all.

    They can kick you out for no reason at all.

    That is a major issue. Kicking someone out of university is a life-changing punishment, and should not be taken so lightly when someone may be innocent. There should be rules about that and I don’t think this should be normalized.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago (24 children)

    Getting fired is life changing yet we accept that we could be fired at any time for no reason here in the US. Protections against getting arbitrarily kicked out of a private university would require legislation. Right now that's a risk you assume when you go to a private institution versus a public one.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 day ago (23 children)

    That is also a problem. But getting kicked out of university for supposed rape when you’re innocent is a life sentence. No decent job will ever hire you.

    The fact that this shit happens all the time doesn’t mean you have to normalise it. It’s not normal.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 day ago (13 children)

    Then maybe Cornell shouldn’t have impeded a real investigation here.

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