Since coming forward with her story last year, Columbia University student Emma Sulkowicz has become an outspoken figure in the fight against campus sexual assault. Her Carry That Weight mattress project has served as the centerpiece of countless news stories about universities' mishandling of rape cases, and she even attended the State of the Union as the guest of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
On Tuesday, Sulkowicz culminated her controversial senior thesis project by attending a graduation ceremony called Class Day with her mattress in tow. But Columbia University president Lee Bollinger was not interested in even acknowledging her presence.
According to the Times:
As Ms. Sulkowicz and her friends ascended the stage, Mr. Bollinger, who had been shaking the students’ hands, turned his back and leaned down as though to pick something up from his seat. Ms. Sulkowicz leaned over the mattress, trying to catch his eye, then straightened up and kept walking, shrugging with her free hand. ...
“I even tried to smile at him or look him in the eye, and he completely turned away,” she said later. “So that was surprising, because I thought he was supposed to shake all of our hands.”
Bollinger and the university were recently sued by Sulkowicz's alleged rapist, Paul Nungesser, who accused them of acting as "a silent bystander and then turned into an active supporter of a fellow student’s harassment campaign by institutionalizing it and heralding it." Maybe by turning away he didn't want to add fuel to the lawsuit, but it's not exactly the classiest move.