--- description: Campus sexual assault activist will leave her mattress at home title: Emma Sulkowicz Will Be Kirstin Gillibrands Guest at State of the Union image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4a32e39f19a4361/69877ac6e20a874cdaa84993/454693120.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Living](/tag/time-section-living/) ## Living Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Columbia University Activist Emma Sulkowicz Is Going to the State of the Union  by [Charlotte Alter](/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Jan 20, 2015 6:10 PM CUT  Emma Sulkowicz, a senior visual arts student at Columbia University, poses with a mattress, which she says she will carry every where she goes in protest of the university's lack of action after she reported being raped during her sophomore year. (Andrew Burton--Getty Images) Emma Sulkowicz, a senior visual arts student at Columbia University, poses with a mattress, which she says she will carry every where she goes in protest of the university's lack of action after she reported being raped during her sophomore year. (Andrew Burton--Getty Images)Andrew Burton—Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Jan 20, 2015 6:10 PM CUT Emma Sulkowicz, the Columbia University student who has been carrying her mattress around campus to raise awareness about sexual assault, will accompany Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) to Tuesday’s State of the Union address. As a co-sponsor of the [Campus Safety and Accountability Act, ](http://www.gillibrand.senate.gov/campus-sexual-assault "undefined")Gillibrand says she is pushing for Obama to address campus sexual assault in his speech, especially as he unveils his plan to make two years of community college free for all Americans. “I hope the President will seize this opportunity to shine a national spotlight on the need to flip the incentives that currently reward colleges for sweeping sexual assaults under the rug,” she told the [New York Daily News.](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/city-student-joins-sen-gillibrand-state-union-article-1.2082851 "undefined") Sulkowicz, 22, has been carrying her mattress around campus as part of her senior thesis about campus sexual assault. She says that after she was raped by a classmate in 2012, Columbia failed to punish her attacker. Although two other women also publicly accused the same man of assault, the university found him “not responsible.” Sulkowicz has been carrying her mattress everywhere she goes on campus to call attention to the issue, but she won’t be brining her mattress to the State of the Union. “The Columbia administration is harboring serial rapists on campus,” Sulkowicz wrote in an op-ed for[ Time.com](http://time.com/99780/campus-sexual-assault-emma-sulkowicz/ "undefined"). (The university declined to comment in response to the article.) The accused student has also spoken out. He says his encounters with Sulkowicz and the other students were entirely consensual. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3674450/emma-sulkowicz-gillibrand-state-of-the-union/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3674450/emma-sulkowicz-gillibrand-state-of-the-union/"},"headline":"Columbia University Activist Emma Sulkowicz Is Going to the State of the Union","datePublished":"2015-01-20T18:10:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:37.443Z","description":"Campus sexual assault activist will leave her mattress at home","url":"https://time.com/3674450/emma-sulkowicz-gillibrand-state-of-the-union/","keywords":["Living","Barack Obama","Sexual Assault","state of the union","campus sexual assault"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4a32e39f19a4361/69877ac6e20a874cdaa84993/454693120.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4a32e39f19a4361/69877ac6e20a874cdaa84993/454693120.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Columbia Student Carries Mattress Around Campus Until Her Alleged Rapist Is Expelled","caption":"Columbia Student Carries Mattress Around Campus Until Her Alleged Rapist Is Expelled","creditText":"Andrew Burton—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3674450/emma-sulkowicz-gillibrand-state-of-the-union/","name":"Columbia University Activist Emma Sulkowicz Is Going to the State of the Union"}}]}] ```