Why College Students Nationwide Are Carrying Mattresses Around Their Campuses Today

Zoe Ridolfi-Starr lived on the same floor as Emma Sulkowicz their freshman year at Columbia University. They didn’t talk much, but during the summer after their first year, they were both sexually assaulted by fellow students. The first person Ridolfi-Starr told about what happened was her former partner, who blamed her. Ridolfi-Starr didn’t talk about the incident again for a year and a half.

Then she read about Sulkowicz’s story in the media about her own sexual assault at Columbia.

“Then I read about other survivors who were coming forward, sharing their experiences, sharing their stories,” Ridolfi-Starr said. “I saw myself, I saw my pain, and I saw my experiences reflected in those other stories. I began to understand what I had been through, and it was less about these individual, painful, private, shameful experiences and part of a bigger thing that was affecting so many people in our community. That was the moment I decided I had to do something.”

Ridolfi-Starr reached out to Sulkowicz and others, and they helped kickstart a movement that is launching its first national day of action on Wednesday. Thousands of students from more than 100 campuses are taking part in National Carry That Weight Day of Action to support survivors of sexual assault. The event’s name takes inspiration from Sulkowicz’s performance art thesis piece, titled "Mattress Performance: Carry That Weight," in which she vows to carry her mattress around Columbia each day her rapist remains on campus.

"I was raped in my own dorm bed, and since then that space has become fraught for me," Sulkowicz said in a video published by the Columbia Spectator. "And I feel like I've carried the weight of what happened there with me everywhere since then."

Those participating in the day of action, which include a few high schools and universities in Europe, will carry mattresses and pillows around their campuses. At Columbia, there will be 28 mattresses carried throughout the day to symbolize the number of students who have filed a Title IX complaint against the university. A rally will begin in the afternoon, with sexual assault survivors joined by public figures like NYC public advocate Letitia James.

“We really wanted to stress showing support for survivors and trying to start conversations in communities,” said Allie Rickard, one of the event coordinators and founder of Carry That Weight Together. “We wanted to create a space where survivors feel like they can talk about their experiences and they know that there are allies there for them.”

Various Community Actions Push Columbia to Be Better

After Ridolfi-Starr reached out to Sulkowicz and other survivors, they decided to found No Red Tape, a student organization pushing for better management of sexual assault cases at their university. Their pressure on the administration has made national headlines and has seen some success.

For one, the university opened a second rape crisis center. The center, which used to be run by mostly student volunteers, now has six new professional staff members. In addition, No Red Tape successfully waged a campaign pressuring Columbia to offer free emergency contraception. The university also is hoping to launch mandatory sexual assault education programming for all students.

The movement to reform Columbia’s handling of sexual assault cases has been bolstered by activist art. As a visual arts major, Sulkowicz decided that her senior thesis would be a performance art piece in which she would carry her mattress around campus. Ridolfi-Starr said she related to this plan almost immediately.

“I felt such a deep connection with it because Emma really was one of those people that lifted the weight off my shoulders,” Ridolfi-Starr said. “She was one of the first people to say, ‘That’s not right. It was not your fault for drinking. Your experience counts.’ All of those things I wish someone would have said to me before. And now I have the opportunity to say those things to people.”

Rickard was also moved by Sulkowicz’s project and wanted to help support her and other sexual assault survivors. This led her to create the Carry That Weight Together campaign, which organizes students to help Sulkowicz carry her mattress around campus. Rickard said Sulkowicz has only had to carry her mattress alone once and that was because reporters were surrounding her.

“It is really powerful in that it’s visibly imprinting itself all over campus,” Rickard said. “There has been great discussion among the students who are participating. It’s a really powerful reminder of the situation here.”

More Work to Be Done

Through different campaigns and actions, Columbia students have created an inspiring community on campus. Ridolfi-Starr said there’s still much work to be done, and students are continuing to fight for better handling of sexual assault cases.

She said that just hearing about the process of pursuing a case from others discouraged her from taking the steps.

“They told me horror stories of an eight-month-long process,” she said. “Having to stay here over the summer or else the school would continue the case without them. Getting calls all day, every day at inappropriate times. Having to read these painful testimonies with all these other people there. And the outcome never, ever being satisfactory—either they are found not responsible or they’re given a slap on the wrist.”

Ridolfi-Starr said the university has slightly changed its policy, and her group is still collecting case studies to see how it’s working. She said one of the problems with the process is that Columbia doesn’t have a formal system that guarantees victims receive the accommodations offered to them under the law, such as changing housing or dropping a class with no penalty.

Another issue is investigators’ failure to take accurate notes; recording interviews is against school policy. When victims correct investigators on the facts, some investigators add an addendum to the evidence that inaccurately implies the victim changed her story.

Ridolfi-Starr said investigators also have a history of failing to contact witnesses provided by the survivor. In one case, she said, the victim was told a few days before her hearing that it was hard to get in touch with her witnesses during summer. At the hearing, the perpetrator had six witnesses with him.

“It was a skewed presentation of what happened that night,” Ridolfi-Starr said.

Another concern with Columbia’s policy is that one dean has oversight over nearly every aspect of investigations. Not only does the process lack checks and balances, the dean has a conflict of interest in wanting to protect the university’s name from scandal.

Carrying That Weight Together

The struggle to transform Columbia’s policies is continuing, and the students are garnering nationwide support. No Red Tape and Carry That Weight Together have received much support for the day of action from national organizations, especially Hollaback! and Rhize.

“Sexual and domestic violence is a problem in every community,” Allie Rickard said. “As college students, we are in the very fortunate position in which we have another avenue to pursue justice through Title IX at our schools. And it’s important that we make sure that we’re holding our institutions accountable to make our communities safer, and holding each other accountable to do the same. We really want to work toward for community-level and cultural-level change to dismantle rape culture and end sexual and domestic violence.”

Zoe Ridolfi-Starr said one of the first steps to ending this violence is making sure victims are heard. She said when she told Emma Sulkowicz what had happened to her, it was life-changing because she was finally able to share her story outloud.

“I’m participating because Emma has done so much to help me carry my weight and her coming forward publicly with her story has created space for survivors to share their stories and to understand that we’re not alone,” she said. “I’m excited to get the chance to help her amplify that message and engage more students, more survivors all over the country in being a part of it. ”