Last month, 23 Columbia and Barnard students filed a federal Title IX complaint alleging that the university mishandled sexual assault cases. Emma Sulkowicz is one of the complainants. The junior says she and two other women reported the same attacker to the university. All three cases were dismissed. Emma tells her story about what it’s like to report an assault in the Ivy League:
“During my hearing, one panelist kept asking me how it was physically possible for anal rape to happen. I was put in the horrible position of trying to explain how this terrible thing happened to me.” The man who Emma says attacked her still lives on campus. (You can read more opinions in TIME’s special report: Ending Campus Sexual Assault, including views from a lawyer who represents the accused and the president of Dartmouth. And get the full story in this week’s cover article by Eliza Gray: The Sexual Assault Crisis on American Campuses.)
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Write to Francesca Trianni at francesca.trianni@time.com and Eliana Dockterman at eliana.dockterman@time.com