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Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight) is a work of endurance performance art by Emma Sulkowicz, an American fourth-year visual arts major at Columbia University in New York City who has alleged that she was raped in her dorm room by fellow fourth-year student and German national, Paul Nungesser.

Initiated in September 2014 for her senior thesis, the work of performance art involves Sulkowicz carrying a mattress wherever she goes on campus, to protest what she describes as Columbia University's mishandling of her sexual assault complaint. Sulkowicz says she will continue carrying the mattress as long as she is attending school with the student she alleges sexually assaulted her.

The piece has received recognition and praise from art critics as well as feminist organizations, but commentators have also criticized the work as unfair to Nungesser. Sulkowicz's performance art prompted Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to invite her to the 2015 State of the Union Address to bring attention to the issue of campus rape. The performance and its ensuing controversy have sparked activism across the United States and abroad.

The accused student, Paul Nungesser was found not responsible by a university inquiry and the district attorney's office declined to pursue an investigation. Nungesser has called Sulkowicz's allegations "untrue and unfounded" and has described her mattress piece as an act of bullying intended to force him to leave Columbia. In April 2015, he filed a sexual discrimination lawsuit against Columbia, its board of trustees, its president Lee Bollinger, and Sulkowicz's supervising art professor Jon Kessler, alleging their negligence in preventing his harassment.

Emma Sulkowicz

Emma Sulkowicz (born 1992 in New York City), is of Chinese, Japanese and Jewish descent. She is the daughter of Sandra Leong and Kerry Sulkowicz, both psychiatrists from Manhattan. She attended Dalton School on the Upper East Side, where she was an A student and competitive fencer. In 2011 she began her undergraduate studies at Columbia University as a visual arts major.

Paul Nungesser

Paul Jonathan Nungesser (German: Nungeßer; born 1991 in Berlin) is a German citizen in his fourth year of studying architecture at Columbia, the son of Karin Nungeßer and Andreas Probosch. Nungeßer is a journalist for the National Council of German Women's Organizations and a feminist blogger. Probosch is a primary school teacher in Kreuzberg. Nungesser attended high school at the Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa in Mbabane, Swaziland, in Southern Africa, where he was active in both community service and drama productions. In 2011, he was accepted to Columbia on a John Jay scholarship which provides full tuition.

Background

In 2011, during the Columbia Outdoor Orientation Program, a freshman pre-orientation, Nungesser and Sulkowicz met and became friends. They both separately joined a co-ed fraternity, the Alpha Delta Phi Society, later that year.

Allegations by Sulkowicz

On April 18, 2013, Sulkowicz reported to Columbia's Office of Gender-Based and Sexual Misconduct that, on the first day of her sophomore year in August 2012, in her dorm room, she was raped by fellow student Nungesser. Describing the alleged rape, she said that what began as a consensual sexual encounter in her room turned non-consensual. She alleged that Nungesser choked her, slapped her face, held her wrists, and anally raped her, while she struggled and told him to stop. She also said that after the alleged assault, Nungesser immediately left the room without speaking.

He and Sulkowicz both corroborate they had had consensual sex twice before, earlier in the year, but not anal sex. According to Nungesser, the encounter in August was also entirely consensual, and he denies the allegations of violence, stating that they briefly had consensual anal sex, followed by other sexual activity, after which they fell asleep, saying he left her room early in the morning while she was still sleeping.

Afterwards they communicated via Facebook messages, including Sulkowicz writing (two days after the incident), "I feel like we need to have some real time where we can talk about life and thingz", but they saw each other progressively less. Nungesser later released transcripts of these messages to The Daily Beast's Cathy Young, who has a history of reporting critically on sexual assault activism. Sulkowicz expressed concern they would be used to present her as unreliable, and stated she had sent the messages because she was upset and wanted to talk to him about the incident but decided against doing so. By the time of her last message, which she sent in March 2013, she said she had visited the university's Office of Gender-Based Misconduct and that they had asked whether she had tried talking to the accused. A university spokesperson said in February 2015 that its gender-based misconduct policy does not recommend informal resolution or mediation for such complaints. Doing so would be a violation of the Title IX guidelines for colleges and universities' response to sexual assault.

In response to criticisms regarding her delay in reporting, Sulkowicz said she initially didn't report the incident to avoid "emotional trauma".

In early 2013 Sulkowicz discussed the incident with "Natalie", Nungesser's former girlfriend. Natalie alleged that there had been non-consensual sex and emotional abuse during her relationship with Nungesser, which lasted from October 2011 to spring 2012. Nungesser denies that charge and describes their time together as a couple as a "difficult relationship". Sulkowicz said that the conversation with Natalie prompted her to file a formal complaint to the university. She filed her complaint on April 18, 2013 and Natalie filed one a few days later.

Sulkowicz's complaint was dismissed for lack of evidence, and her request for an appeal was denied.

Allegations from others

Three other complaints have been alleged against Nungesser: a second woman accused him of emotional abuse and nonconsensual sex during a months-long relationship, and a third student accused him of non-consensually kissing her and touching her at a party.

The second accuser's investigation was discontinued after she said she was "exhausted by the barrage of questions" and stopped responding to emails from the University's Title IX coordinator for sexual assault investigations.

The third complaint was initially decided against Nungesser, with an assigned punishment of disciplinary probation, but Nungesser successfully appealed, citing procedural errors and problems with the admission of hearsay. The German student further appealed on grounds that his accuser had failed to demonstrate guilt by a "preponderance of the evidence" as required in campus hearings. When the case was heard again, the accuser withdrew from the process entirely, citing a new job and difficulty taking time off work to attend the university hearings.

In each of these cases, Nungesser was found "not responsible". The standard of proof at these university hearings was "preponderance of evidence", rather than the stricter standard of "clear and convincing evidence".

Nungesser says the allegations, which were all brought within days of each other, were the result of collusion and are fraudulent. The three women said in interviews with The New York Times that they decided to file formal complaints with the school after they heard about one another's experiences. Sulkowicz was also quoted referring to Nungesser as a "serial rapist," although according to Daily Beast reporter Cathy Young and Nungesser's lawsuit against Columbia, Sulkowicz's complaint was the only one that clearly alleged rape.

A fourth accuser emerged in early 2015, a fourth-year male student who said Nungesser sexually assaulted him after an emotional conversation. The student, identified as "Adam," said he first reported the incident to the group to which they both belonged, and then he filed a Title IX complaint. His case is still pending.

Outcome of Sulkowicz's hearing, Nungesser's first complaints

On October 29, the day after Nungesser's third accuser's hearing, one was scheduled for Sulkowicz's case. In November the university found Paul Nungesser "not responsible".

Sulkowicz's request for an appeal was turned down by the dean.

Sulkowicz and Nungesser both complained separately about the proceedings. Sulkowicz complained that Nungesser was granted months of postponements during the hearing, and that she was not allowed to discuss the case with anyone. She complained that a university investigator took inaccurate notes of interviews with her, and that she had to offer unnecessarily graphic details during the hearing. A graduate student who accompanied Nungesser to the hearing contested this last point, “The panel were asking sensible questions; they were equally asked of Paul, and had been asked of Paul through the entire process."

Nungesser complained that he had not been allowed to introduce Facebook messages as evidence. Journalist and writer Naomi Schaefer Riley wrote in the New York Post that two days after the alleged rape, Nungesser had invited Sulkowicz via Facebook messaging to come to a party saying, "Small shindig in our room tonight-bring cool freshman." And she responded, "lol yusss, Also I feel like we need to have some real time where we can talk about life and thingz, because we still haven’t really had a paul-emma chill sesh since summmmerrrr". A couple weeks later Sulkowicz messaged saying "I want to see yoyououoyou". Riley noted that there are six pages' worth of back-and-forth Facebook messages between the two which were released by Nungesser and subsequently published by Cathy Young. Sulkowicz has confirmed the authenticity of the messages, but has said that snippets have been published out of context. Sulkowicz says she sent the messages because she was upset and wanted to talk to Nungesser about the incident.

Press break, publicity, and federal complaint

The New York Post broke the story in December 2013, without naming either party. On April 7, 2014 Sulkowicz appeared with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand at a press conference about sexual assault on campus, telling reporters that she had been raped.

On April 24, Sulkowicz and 22 other students (later joined by five others) filed a 100-page federal complaint alleging that Columbia University and Barnard College mishandled their sexual-assault complaints, in violation of Title IX, a federal civil rights law to ensure gender equality on campuses. The complaint also alleged that the universities were in violation of Title II, a provision against discrimination by a public body on the basis of disability, and the Clery Act, which requires federally financed universities to disclose campus crime statistics. The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights opened two investigations in January 2015 into the Title IX and Title II complaints against Columbia.

On May 3, 2014 an interview with Sulkowicz appeared on the front page of The New York Times. For several days from May 7 onwards, Paul Nungesser's name was included within lists of "sexual assault violators" written on the walls or doors of campus bathrooms, or on flyers. On May 14, Sulkowicz filed a report with the NYPD. Columbia's student newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator, controversially published the accused student's name two days later. The editors stated that they felt it would be "irresponsible to keep his name hidden", noting that Nungesser had been at the center of three sexual assault complaints as well as a number of fliers posted around campus.

Nungesser says that he agreed to a police interview at the Sex Crimes Unit in New York City in August, and that shortly after this the district attorney's office told him they would not be pursuing the case.

Sulkowicz's performance

Rules of engagement, Watson Hall
Sulkowicz with mattress on campus
October 2014

Sulkowicz created Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight) in the summer of 2014 for her senior thesis while at Yale University Summer School of Art and Music. Her first effort was a video of herself dismantling a bed, accompanied by the audio of her filing the police report, which she had recorded on her cellphone. The mattress later became the sole focus of the piece. Sulkowicz told New York magazine:

I thought about how ... the mattress represents a private place where a lot of your intimate life happens; and how I have brought my life out in front for the public to see; and the act of bringing something private and intimate out into the public mirrors the way my life has been. Also the mattress as a burden, because of what has happened there, that has turned my own relationship with my bed into something fraught.

The 50-pound (23 kg), dark-blue, extra-long twin mattress used in the performance art piece is of the kind Columbia places in its dorms, similar to the one on which she alleges she was raped. Sulkowicz spent the summer of 2014 creating the rules of engagement: Written on the walls of her studio in the university's Watson Hall, these state that she must carry the mattress whenever she is on university property; that it must remain on campus even when Sulkowicz is not there; and that she is not allowed to ask for help in carrying it, but if help is offered she may accept it. In September that year she began carrying it on campus, which she says is a physically painful experience.

She was advised about the piece by artist Jon Kessler, a Columbia professor. Kessler has said: "e got involved in phone conversations about the nature of endurance art, talking about pieces by Tehching Hsieh and Marina and Ulay and Chris Burden."

But what struck me from the get-go ... is that, more than any of those people, Emma's work comes from something which is so much more personal and so much deeper and so much less of a programmatic idea about what to do, but really about working something out cathartically and also making an enormous statement for change. And that's what makes it so powerful.

Kessler was later named in Nungesser's lawsuit with Nungesser alleging the art professor, who approved Sulkowicz's Mattress Performance for course credit, was complicit in harassment against him.

Sulkowicz has said she plans to continue carrying the mattress until Nungesser is expelled from or otherwise leaves Columbia, and that she will take the mattress to her graduation ceremony if necessary. As part of his lawsuit against Columbia, Nungesser is attempting to block her from bringing the mattress to their graduation ceremony. Sulkowicz asked: “If artists are not allowed to make art that reflect on our experiences, then how are we to heal?” but she also said, "If for some reason someone prevents me from carrying the mattress at graduation that will be how this historical moment ends".

Reception

Praise

New York Times art critic Roberta Smith described the piece as "strict and lean, yet inclusive and open ended, symbolically laden yet drastically physical", writing that comparisons to the Stations of the Cross and Hester Prynne's scarlet letter are apparent. Nato Thompson, chief curator of Creative Time, said the work was "adopted ... swiftly and effectively" and that he " think of another instance where a work of art has triggered a movement in this way." Art critic Jerry Saltz called it "clear, to the point, insistent, adamant ... pure radical vulnerability", and included it in his list of the best 19 art shows of 2014.

Artnet cited Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight) as "almost certainly ... one of the most important artworks of the year", comparing it to Ana Mendieta's Untitled (Rape Scene) (1973) and Suzanne Lacy and Leslie Liebowitz's Three Weeks in May (1977). Artist Marina Abramović praised it saying: "many people don't have the willpower to stick to something no matter what, and that's what she's doing" adding, "it's about changing consciousness, changing the state of mind...only then can you change the world".

Sulkowicz received the National Organization for Women's Susan B. Anthony Award and the Feminist Majority Foundation's Ms. Wonder Award for the piece.Hillary Clinton also commented on it saying: "That image should haunt all of us".

Inspired activism

On October 29, 2014, dozens of Columbia students carried 28 mattresses around the school's Morningside Heights campus, one for each student who joined the federal Title IX complaint, then left them outside the home of Lee Bollinger, president of the university. A month later a group called "Carry That Weight" organized similar protests in 130 campuses in the US, and several around the world, including the Central European University in Budapest, calling for a "National Day of Action to Carry That Weight".

In January 2015, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand invited Sulkowicz to the 2015 State of the Union Address. Families Advocating for Campus Equality said the invitation was "undeserved and violates the principles of confidentiality and gender equality of Title IX", and that Sulkowicz had "failed to establish any wrongdoing by the student she accused". Gillibrand, who co-sponsored the Campus Safety and Accountability Act, told reporters that the invitation sent "a message to ... colleagues and to the White House" that the issue of sexual assault on campus was important.

Criticism

Paul Nungesser said in a December 2014 interview with The New York Times that the mattress performance is not an act of artistic expression, but instead one orchestrated to bully him and force him to leave Columbia. He said that on the National Day of Action, protesters followed him around, carrying mattresses to one of his classes and taking his picture. He also said that he was not permitted to use written communications between himself and the alleged victim as evidence, and expressed disbelief that anyone could believe he was guilty even after his accusers failed to meet what he deemed the low burden of proof in the university hearing process. He also stated that since Sulkowicz's protest serves as her senior thesis, it is being supervised and implicitly endorsed by a Columbia faculty member. His lawyer added that Senator Gillibrand failed to adequately investigate his accuser's account before appearing with her and that she " a fictional event and an entire platform around it".

Asked by German Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin about her feelings on the treatment of her son at Columbia, Paul's mother Karin said, "This is a feeling of lawlessness." His father Andreas said that he sometimes fears his son will leave the school as a "cynic" and a "suspicious man".

The New York Post's Naomi Schaefer Riley criticized Sulkowicz's work as "shaming without proof" and accused her and her supporters of "saving themselves from having to answer any questions and destroying men's lives with lies and innuendo." In his article If anything’s art, art’s nothing, National Post columnist Robert Fulford compared Sulkowicz's work to that of Megumi Igarashi and concluded, "if everything is art, then art can be used for anything. And in the process meaning and value dissolve and art becomes hopelessly debased."

Glenn Reynolds, law professor at the University of Tennessee, wrote on his political blog Instapundit: "It would have been nice if Senator Kirsten Gillibrand hadn't joined the lynch mob, embracing Sulkowicz and calling Nungesser a 'rapist' even after he was cleared by two different proceedings (one of which required only a preponderance of the evidence to convict)".

Nungesser's lawsuit

PAUL NUNGESSER V. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, LEE C. BOLLINGER, and JON KESSLER (Complaint), Nessenoff & Miltenberg LLP, New York City

On April 23, 2015, Nungesser filed a sexual discrimination lawsuit against Columbia, its board of trustees, its president Lee Bollinger, and Sulkowicz's supervising art professor Jon Kessler. The lawsuit alleges failure to protect him against harassment in the wake of the incident. Specified grievances include: that a school-owned website had presented as fact that he sexually assaulted Sulkowicz; that the school allowed Sulkowicz to carry a mattress into classes, the library, and on campus-provided transportation as part of her senior thesis; and that Kessler approved the Mattress Project for course credit allegedly in violation of Title IX, a federal law mandating that federally funded educational institutions not discriminate based on gender.

The suit argues that Sulkowicz is “actively earning course credit from Columbia for this outrageous display of harassment and defamation of Paul and she is using this to fulfill her graduation requirement of a senior thesis, even despite clear notice by Paul and his parents to President Bollinger and other Columbia persons of authority, that Paul’s legal rights are being violated.” It accuses Bollinger of having “displayed a contemptible moral cowardice in bowing down to the witch hunt against an innocent student instead of standing up for the truth and taking appropriate steps to protect Paul from gender based harassment.” Nungesser says he was ”targeted because he is a male, and attacked for his (consensual) sexual activity.”

He stated, "Day-to-day life is unbearably stressful, as Emma and her mattress parade around campus each and every day". As a result of publicity that resulted in media reports in 35 countries, he says he "has been subjected to severe, pervasive ... and threatening behavior by other Columbia students". He says he desires to stay in the US, where he has been dating a girlfriend for over a year and he is seeking consulting work in New York but job prospects have been "severely jeopardised" by the school’s support of Sulkowicz.

The case was assigned to US District Court Judge Gregory Woods, an appointee of President Barack Obama recommended by Senator Charles Schumer.

Commentary on lawsuit

Megan McArdle commented on the Title IX complaint in Bloomberg View saying, "I don't find (Nungesser's) litany of complaints particularly compelling". She questioned the school's decision to give Sulkowicz course credit but said that Nungesser should not have the power to silence Sulkowicz. She concluded "perhaps winning the suit is not the point. I wonder if many of the men in question aren't simply rebelling against the system, determined to get their side of the story on the record somewhere - for much the same reason that Sulkowicz said she filed a complaint against Nungesser. He can't silence her, and he shouldn't have that power. But he can force the media to pay a little attention to his side of the story, something that didn't happen during the many long months of Sulkowicz's campaign to name and shame him." McArdle also said that Sulkowitz's account has "some problems" including her messages to Nungesser, and possibly "fudging" details to reporters.

KC Johnson, history professor at Brooklyn College, was quoted in Reason discussing the confidentiality/privacy instructions Nungesser reported receiving following the university hearings which specifically stated: "breaches of confidentiality/privacy the complainant, respondent, witnesses, or the investigators, may result in additional disciplinary action." Johnson presumes Sulkowicz received the same instruction, otherwise the university would be in violation of Title IX. Johnson said "Sulkowicz obviously has ignored that requirement, and responded to the not-culpable finding by going on a media spree...No evidence exists that Columbia disciplined Sulkowicz for the breach of confidentiality. Instead, Columbia removed the promise of confidentiality in 2014, after Sulkowicz had begun her publicity effort."

Robby Soave wrote in Reason that it is ironic that Nungesser's lawsuit rests on Title IX. He further remarked that rape victims who believe they did not receive justice from the university often turn to Title IX, saying, "In some sense, Nungesser is flipping the script by alleging that Sulkowicz’s rape accusations and subsequent activism are the kind of thing that believes Title IX requires universities to prevent."

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education's Samantha Harris commented, "The current interpretation of Title IX arguably invites the type of claims that Nungesser is making. But from FIRE’s perspective, the case is notable because it illustrates just what a broken system looks like. Two students at Columbia University, on both sides of a sexual assault allegation, have completely lost faith in Columbia’s ability to deliver a trustworthy, reliable verdict. And as a result of this loss of confidence on both sides, a great number of very personal details about two students’ sex lives have become national news. And yet with every new piece of federal guidance, universities like Columbia only become more and more entangled in handling claims of serious felony misconduct. Time and again, universities demonstrate—in ways that harm both victims and the accused—that they are simply not equipped to address such complicated and serious cases. Doubling down on this broken system is not the answer, and until something changes, we are likely to see more cases like this one.“

Sulkowicz and Columbia University response

Sulkowicz responded to the lawsuit by saying it is "ridiculous that Paul would sue not only the school but one of my past professors for allowing me to make an art piece" and saying that Nungesser has made "continued public attempts to smear reputation". Asked why Sulkowicz wasn't named as a defendant in the suit, Nungesser's attorney, Andrew Miltenberg, said: "This case is not about Emma Sulkowicz. It is about Columbia University as an institution, which was not only silent, but actively and knowingly supported attacks on Paul Nungesser, after having determined his innocence, legitimizing a fiction. Emma Sulkowicz is merely a footnote to this story."

The school, via one of its spokespeople, had no official comment on the lawsuit, and Kessler also declined to comment, although university president Bollinger offered a general statement, saying, "The law and principles of academic freedom allow students to express themselves on issues of public debate; at the same time, our legal and ethical responsibility is to be fair and impartial in protecting the rights and accommodating the concerns of all students in these matters."

References

1. ^ For endurance performance art:

   Sulkowicz, Emma (2 September 2014). "Emma Sulkowicz: "Carry That Weight", Columbia Daily Spectator, 2:22 mins: "To me, it's an endurance performance art piece."

   Steinhauer, Jillian (17 September 2014). "Two Weeks Into Performance, Columbia Student Discusses the Weight of Her Mattress", Hyperallergic, quoting Jon Kessler, a professor at Columbia: "The impulse was there for her to carry the bed around, and she didn't necessarily have the information as to how that would fit into the context or the history of performance art. So this summer we got involved in phone conversations about the nature of endurance art, talking about pieces by Tehching Hsieh and Marina and Ulay and Chris Burden."

   Smith, Roberta (22 September 2014), "In a Mattress, a Lever for Art and Political Protest", The New York Times.

2. ^ Young, Cathy (3 February 2015). "Columbia Student: I Didn't Rape Her". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 25 April 2015. Cite error: The named reference "DailyBeast" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
3. McDonald, Soraya Nadia (29 October 2014). "It's hard to ignore a woman toting a mattress everywhere she goes, which is why Emma Sulkowicz is still doing it". The Washington Post.
4. ^ Van Syckle, Katie (20 January 2015). "Alleged Columbia Rapist 'Dismayed and Disappointed' by Accuser’s SOTU Invitation", New York Magazine.
5. ^ Kaminer, Ariel (December 21, 2014). "Accusers and the Accused, Crossing Paths at Columbia University". New York Times. Cite error: The named reference "NYT" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
6. ^ Neumeister, Larry (April 24, 2015). "Correction: Columbia University-Gender Bias Suit Story".
7. ^ Kutner, Max (28 April 2015). "The Anti-Mattress Protest: Paul Nungesser's Lawsuit Against Columbia University". Newsweek. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
8. "Carry That Weight", Emma Sulkowicz interviewed by Roberta Smith, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, December 2014, c. 48:50 mins.
9. ^ Grigoriadis, Vanessa (21 September 2014). "Meet the College Women Who Are Starting a Revolution Against Campus Sexual Assault", New York Magazine.
10. Christoph Cadenbach: Nachtschatten, Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, Heft 5/2015; Ulrike Demmer, Susann Remke: "Ich habe Emma nicht vergewaltigt", Focus Magazin Nr. 7/2015.
11. http://www.weibblick.com weibblick
12. Cindy Lüderitz: Die Fahrräder sind schon da, Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung; Nicole Dolif: Erst Mathe, dann Klavier, Berliner Morgenpost; Hunsrück Primary School - Portrait.
13. ^ "PAUL NUNGESSER V. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, LEE C. BOLLINGER, and JON KESSLER" (PDF) (Press release). Nessenoff & Miltenberg LLP. 29 April 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
14. ^ Pérez-Peña, Richard (3 February 2015). "Fight Against Sexual Assaults Holds Colleges to Account". The New York Times.
15. Leong, Sandra, and Sulkowicz, Kerry (October 2, 2014). "An open letter to President Bollinger and the board of trustees". the Columbia Spectator. Retrieved April 25, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
16. ^ Bogler, Emma (May 16, 2014). "Frustrated by Columbia's inaction, student reports sexual assault to police". Columbia Spectator.
17. ^ Zeilinger, Julie (February 3, 2015). "The Treatment of Emma Sulkowicz Proves We Still Have No Idea How to Talk About Rape", Mic.
18. ^ Kaplan, Sarah (February 4, 2015). "In Columbia University rape case, accuser and accused are now fighting it out in public". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
19. "Know Your Rights: Title IX Prohibits Sexual Harassment1 and Sexual Violence Where You Go to School" (PDF). US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
20. ^ Sulkowicz, Emma (15 May 2014). "'My Rapist Is Still on Campus'". Time.
21. ^ Leong, Sandra; Sulkowicz, Kerry (2 October 2014). "An open letter to President Bollinger and the board of trustees". Columbia Spectator.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
22. Roy, Jessica (February 6, 2015). "Male Columbia Student Says Alleged Rapist in 'Mattress Girl' Case Assaulted Him Too". New York magazine. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
23. "Columbia mattress case is not justice, it's shaming without proof", nypost.com, February 8, 2015; accessed February 22, 2015.
24. Ryan, Erin Gloria (6 February 2015). "How to Make an Accused Rapist Look Good", Jezebel.

    Zeilinger, Julie (3 February 2015). "The Treatment of Emma Sulkowicz Proves We Still Have No Idea How to Talk About Rape", Mic.

25. Palmeri, Tara (December 11, 2013). Columbia drops ball on jock ‘rapist’ probe: students", New York Post.
26. "Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Seeks Funds To Fight College Campus Sex Assaults", CBS New York, April 7, 2014; Press release, Kirsten Gillibrand's office, April 7, 2014.
27. ^ Bogler, Emma (April 24, 2014). "Students file federal complaint against Columbia, alleging Title IX, Title II, Clery Act violations", Columbia Spectator.

    Kingkade, Tyler (18 September 2014). "Columbia University Rape Victim Says She Was Forced Out Of School Twice", The Huffington Post.

28. Pryal, Katie Rose Guest (January 15, 2015). "Where Title IX meets Title II", Chronicle Vitae.
29. Kingkade, Tyler (January 12, 2015). "Columbia University Is Under Federal Investigation For Sexual Assault Cases". The Huffington Post.
30. Abby Abrams (May 13, 2014). "List of 'sexual assault violators' written in Hamilton, Lerner, Butler bathrooms", Columbia Spectator.
31. ^ Abrams, Abby and Lau, Steven (May 16, 2014). "Why we published the name of an alleged rapist", Columbia Spectator.
32. "Why we published the name of an alleged rapist". Columbia Spectator. May 16, 2014. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
33. Smith 2014, c. 38:45 mins.
34. ^ Smith, Roberta (22 September 2014). "In a Mattress, a Lever for Art and Political Protest". The New York Times.
35. Van Syckle, Katie (4 September 2014). "The Columbia Student Carrying a Mattress Everywhere Says Reporters Are Triggering Rape Memories", New York Magazine.
36. Smith, 17 December 2014, from c. 39:57 mins; for Watson Hall, Sulkowicz, 2 September 2014, from c. 2:00 mins.
37. Duan, Noel (9 September 2014). "Going From Class to Class With Emma Sulkowicz and Her Mattress", Elle.
38. ^ Steinhauer, Jillian (17 September 2014). "Two Weeks Into Performance, Columbia Student Discusses the Weight of Her Mattress", Hyperallergic.

    "Jon Kessler", Columbia University School of the Arts.

39. ^ Paul Nungesser is suing Columbia University in New York for allowing Emma Sulkowicz to carry a mattress around suggesting he raped her, news.com.au, April 25, 2015.
40. Marsh, Julie (24 April 2015). "Accused rapist sues Columbia". Retrieved 27 April 2015.
41. Kaplan, Sarah (28 November 2014). "How a mattress became a symbol for student activists against sexual assault", The Washington Post.
42. Saltz, Jerry (10 December 2014). "The 19 Best Art Shows of 2014". New York Magazine.
43. Davis, Ben (4 September 2014). "Columbia Student's Striking Mattress Performance". Artnet.
44. Niland, Josh (27 October 2014). "Marina Abramović is Down With Emma Sulkowicz's Mattress Piece"Artnet.
45. "Meet Our 2014 Honorees". Susan B. Anthony Awards. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
46. "Ms. Wonder Awards Honor Young Grassroots Leaders in Anti-Violence and Fair Wage Movements". Feminist Newswire. 19 November 2014.
47. Schonfeld, Zach (October 30, 2014). "Photos: Hundreds of Columbia Students Carry Mattresses in Sexual Assault Protest". Newsweek.
48. Nathanson, Rebecca (December 1, 2014). "How 'Carry That Weight' Is Changing the Conversation on Campus Sexual Assault", Rolling Stone.
49. Svokos, Alexandra (October 29, 2014). "Students Bring Out Mattresses In Huge 'Carry That Weight' Protest Against Sexual Assault". Huffington Post.

    For Budapest, see Kashmira, Gander (November 13, 2014). "University 'charges students hundreds of dollars' to clean up mattresses from Emma Sulkowicz anti-sexual assault solidarity protest", The Independent.

50. McDonald, Soraya Nadia (January 20, 2015). "Columbia student Emma Sulkowicz carried mattress to protest campus rape. Now she's attending the State of the Union.", The Washington Post.
51. Richardson, Valerie (January 26, 2015). "Kirsten Gillibrand blasted for decision to invite Columbia ‘mattress girl’ to SOTU", The Washington Times.
52. Van Syckle, Katie (January 24, 2015). "Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Talks Campus Rape and The Hunting Ground at Sundance", New York Magazine.
53. Dan Friedman: Columbia student says Gillibrand smeared him with rape talk, New York Daily News.
54. Christoph Cadenbach: Nachtschatten, Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, Heft 5/2015
55. Schaefer Riley, Naomi (February 8, 2015). "Columbia mattress rape case is not justice--it's shaming without proof". New York Post.
56. National Post (May 1, 2015), Robert Fulford: If anything’s art, art’s nothing.
57. Glenn Reynolds: Instapundit, February 4, 2015.
58. ^ Student Accused Being 'Serial Rapist' Files Lawsuit Against Columbia And Art Professor, Associated Press/Huffington Post Cite error: The named reference "huffsuit" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
59. ^ Irin Carmon (April 24, 2015), Columbia student accused of rape sues university, msnbc.
60. Neumeister, Larry (April 27, 2015). "Student Accused of Rape by Former Friend Sues Columbia". New York Law Journal. Retrieved April 30, 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
61. "President Obama Nominates Two to Serve on the United States District Court". The White House Office of the Press Secretary. 9 May 2013. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
62. Megan McArdle: Accused Gets His Say in Columbia Rape Case, Bloomberg View, April 27, 2015.
63. ^ Soave, Robby (April 30, 2015), Mattress Girl Lawsuit: Can Paul Nungesser Beat Columbia in Court? Experts Weigh In - "His time at college and future have been shattered", Reason.
64. KC Johnson (April 25, 2015). "Male in 'Mattress Case' sues Columbia". Minding the Campus. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
65. "Gender-Based Misconduct Policies for Students: Confidentiality/Privacy & Non-Retaliation Policy" (Document). p. 11. Breaches of confidentiality/privacy or retaliation against any person involved in the investigation, including the complainant, respondent, witnesses, or the investigators, may result in additional disciplinary action. {{cite document}}: Cite document requires |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |accessdate= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |url= ignored (help) (The actual text from the policy.)
66. "Columbia Student Sues University, Says Rape Accuser Has Ruined His Reputation". CBS New York. 23 April 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
67. Saul, Heather (24 April 2015). "Male student sues Columbia University for 'gender-based harassment' after alleged 'Mattress Performance' rape victim Emma Sulkowicz went public with claims".
68. Merlan, Anna (April 24, 2015). "Here's the Full Complaint in the 'Mattress' Lawsuit Against Columbia". Jezebel.
69. Max Kutner (April 28, 2015), The Anti-Mattress Protest: Paul Nungesser’s Lawsuit Against Columbia University, Newsweek.
70. Emanuella Grinberg, Columbia student accused of rape sues over accuser's performance art. CNN, April 28, 2015.
71. "Columbia student cleared of rape sues school". AOL News. April 25, 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2015.

• Proposed deletion as of 3 May 2015
• 2014 works
• 2015 works
• Feminism and the arts
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• Morningside Heights, Manhattan
• New York City performance art
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