Rape Accuser Brings Mattress to Graduation

A Columbia student who has been carrying a dorm mattress around campus all year as a symbolic gesture against her alleged rapist has kept that gesture going until the very end: Emma Sulkowicz today brought her mattress to graduation, reports the Columbia Spectator. When her name was called, she brought it on stage with her to applause, reports the Daily Beast. The school had seemed to forbid the move with an email yesterday barring students from bringing "large objects" to Class Day ceremonies, but Sulkowicz nevertheless turned up with her mattress in tow. Friends helped her carry it.

No word yet on the reaction from the university or from her alleged rapist, a fellow graduating senior who has sued the school for allowing Sulkowicz to carry the mattress as part of a sanctioned art project. He was never charged, and the school has cleared him of wrongdoing. Sulkowicz had said she would carry the mattress until he was expelled, or until she graduated. (More Emma Sulkowicz stories.)