“There is no justice here,” shouted a student on Low Steps this Friday.
She was just one of many to participate in the Speak Out, part of No Red Tape’s Stand With Survivors event. Today (Sept. 12) on Columbia’s Low Steps, undergraduate students, graduate students, and alumni gathered for three hours in the heat to listen to survivors of sexual assault share their stories, volunteers read anonymous story submissions, and allies offer words of encouragement.
Though it’s important for everyone to hear the message, the University administration was being targeted in particular. Posters called out president and deans directly – “DEAN VALENTINI: HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT?” and “PREZBO, WHERE IS THE DATA?” are just two examples. Cassandra, who just began at the School of Social Work urged that “the administration needs to take notice. They need to listen – and respond. They need to take action.”
While The University administration released a new sexual assault and gender based misconduct policy over the summer, student activist groups quickly expressed dissatisfaction that it didn’t sufficiently acknowledge student complaints, or the issues at the crux of the problem. There was a similar response when the University cancelled the fall Bacchanal concert; the Coalition Against Sexual Violence told the Times that this cancellation “sends the false message that the concert is the cause of sexual violence…but sexual violence is prevalent throughout the year.”
Students at the Speak Out echoed this concern. One student asked, “Why is it more likely for me to get raped at this college than to get into this college?”
Emma Sulkowicz, the Columbia senior who is carrying her mattress around campus until she no longer shares the campus with her alleged rapist, spoke as well. “We are more determined than ever to end sexual assault on this campus and across the nation. A movement is rising.” That movement helped her on Wednesday in the community’s first Collective Carry, helping her carry the mattress to her classes in another show of solidarity.
But student activism alone can only go so far, which is why sexual misconduct policy change is being so heavily pursued by the survivor and ally community. Allie Rickard, the organizer of Carrying The Weight Together and the collective carries, said, “The administration, to my knowledge, has not directly responded to Emma or me about Emma’s performance art or my campaign to rally student support.” The deans were seen stopping by the event. Hopefully this time they were really listening.
For more ways to get involved, there are several anti-sexual violence groups on campus: No Red Tape, Coalition Against Sexual Violence, Carrying The Weight Together, and Take Back The Night. For more resources and support, you can visit the Columbia and Barnard counseling centers as well as the Rape Crisis Center.