"We Will Not Be Silenced": Students Denounce Rape at Columbia as Schools Face Scrutiny for Inaction

[niyad]

TRIGGER WARNING--sexual assault:


"We Will Not Be Silenced": Students Denounce Rape at Columbia as Schools Face Scrutiny for Inaction


Hundreds of students turned out for a rally at Columbia University in New York City on Friday bearing mattresses and chanting "carry that weight," a reference to the emotional burden they say all survivors must shoulder each day. Some wore red tape over their mouths to symbolize the harms done by Columbia’s bureaucratic handling of sexual assault. Earlier this month, Columbia University senior Emma Sulkowicz announced she would carry a dorm room mattress with her everywhere on campus until her rapist is expelled or leaves campus on his own. We play excerpts from Friday’s rally and speak to Sulkowicz and fellow Columbia University senior Zoe Ridolfi-Starr. She was also sexually assaulted at Columbia in 2012. She is the lead complainant in a federal complaint against Columbia over its handling of sexual assault.


AMY GOODMAN: We’re speaking with Emma Sulkowicz, a Columbia University senior who says she’ll carry a dorm room mattress with her everywhere on campus until her rapist is expelled or leaves campus on his own. Emma Sulkowicz is not alone. On Friday, hundreds of students turned out to a rally carrying mattresses of their own, chanting "Carry that weight!" a reference to the emotional burden they say all survivors must carry each day. In front of Low Library at Columbia University in a speak-out that lasted hours, many shared stories of violence, injustice and healing. This is just some of their voices.
STUDENTS: Carry that weight! Carry that weight! Carry that weight! Carry that weight!

SIERRA: Sierra. I’m a freshman here at Columbia. And for the past two weeks, I’ve been meeting with deans and advisers in different environments, and they’ve been telling me how they can help me get a job, how they can help me study abroad. How are you going to help end sexual assault on my campus? Why is it more likely for me to be raped at this college than it was for me to get into this college?

ALICE: My name is Alice. I’m a junior at Barnard. To graduate from Columbia College, you need to pass a swim test or take a beginner’s swim class. I don’t get why Columbia’s administration doesn’t uphold consent—enthusiastic, continuous, retractable, noncoerced consent—as a Columbia requirement. My assaulter graduated. My friend’s rapist graduated. I guess not being a rapist isn’t a graduation requirement, unlike knowing how to swim. Knowing how to breast stroke for three laps isn’t going to keep me from drowning when I see my rapists on campus or their name on a class roster or when you run into them in an elevator. Columbia, where rapists walk away with diplomas, but you can’t graduate unless you pass the swim test.

DOROTHY: Hi, I’m Dorothy. I’m a freshman. I’ve been on this campus for two weeks, and I was sexually assaulted six days ago. And no one tells you where to go from there, so...

. . . .

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/9/16/we_will_not_be_silenced_students

[elleng]

1. Saw.that.WTF.is.it.

@Columbia???

[niyad]

2. patriarchal, sexist, woman-hating assholes? sadly, this seems to be true for many of our

institutions of so-called "higher learning".

[niyad]

3. . .

[redgreenandblue]

4. Reading this, I am wondering why a university should be tasked with law-enforcement.

Rape is a federal crime. It should be dealt with by police and courts, not the administration of universities. Universities are not equipped to deal with this.

[libdem4life]

5. No. They need to affirm the report so that it can progress to the higher officials. Otherwise,

it's still the old "he said-she said".

They do have a duty to provide safety on their campus. If someone falls and hurts themselves or gets shot or injured in any way, a report is taken and it then goes to the proper authorities.

People don't ask to be shot, but women "ask" to be raped and besides no one knows what rape is any more...except the victims.

That's why organizations have expensive Liability Insurance and each occurrence is just like car insurance, the more reports, the higher the insurance. I'ts not only idiocy and sexism, it's financial.

[redgreenandblue]

6. Liability and financial incentives. Perhaps therein lies the problem.

From a practical perspective, the university administration has very little tools available to prevent rapes or shootings, other than draconian measures that no one wants: Armed security and metal detectors at gates and strict enforcement of gender segregation at all social gatherings comes to mind for instance.

Perhaps demanding *more* accountability from them is precisely the counter-productive thing to do. Specifically in a place like Colombia, which is in the middle of Manhattan and where it is literally possible to cross the campus without realizing that one has entered and left a non-public place it seems crazy to assume that the university administration has the capacity to police the place and provide due-process for offenses. Given the lack of other practical tools, the university administration will react in the natural way that any organization with interest in self-preservation would when faced with a liability: Denial.

It would seem much more sensible to remove the administration from the equation entirely and treat the university campus as if it were any other public space when it comes to federal crimes.