Rutgers students ‘Carry the Weight’ around campus

A group of students and faculty marched down College Avenue yesterday holding 24 bare and blue mattresses for the “Help Rutgers Carry the Weight” campaign. Kaila Boulware, a School of Arts and Sciences senior and campaign organizer, asked the group about the symbolism of holding a dense mattress in silence.

University students and staff came together in front of Brower Commons as a way of standing in solidarity with survivors of sexual assault and bringing awareness to incidents of sexual assault on campus, said Eshani Dixit, a School of Arts and Sciences junior.

One mattress had bright red tape stuck to it, along with statistics such as “one in five women will be sexually assaulted while at college” and “58 percent of rapes occur while the victim is incapacitated at college parties.”

The event was an effort to educate others about sexual assault and to let survivors know they have a community at Rutgers.

For her thesis project, Columbia University student Emma Sulkowicz carries her mattress with her every day to protest the fact that her rapist was found not guilty. This inspired yesterday’s demonstration at Rutgers.

Laura Christiansen, program coordinator at Rutgers Student Life, said the activity was a great way to visually demonstrate a victim’s struggle.

“Emma has been successful in that she has sparked an entire movement,” Christiansen said.

Brady Root, prevention education coordinator at the Office for Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance, said the plan of the event was to walk silently down College Avenue to represent those who are unable to speak out and to show how hard it is for victims to carry that weight by themselves.

On the march back, the group used their voices to chant “no more silence, no more violence” to stand up for survivors.

In addition to the march, students carried mattresses and pillows around campus throughout the day, Dixit said. Technically, Sulkowicz’s rule says students cannot ask for help with carrying the weight of their mattress, but they can accept offered help. 

“This event is important to have at Rutgers, especially because we have just been recognized by the White House as a school that is exemplary in their victim assistance programs. We need to make sure that the campus climate here among the students matches the efforts our administration is making to combat sexual assault,” Dixit said.

The VPVA is really helpful for survivors, Dixit said. It offers counseling and help students take legal or administrative action against their attackers.

“Ultimately, there’s no pressure on the survivor,” Dixit said. “[It’s important to give] the survivor that kind of autonomy to make their choice because they had so much control taken away from them through sexual assault.” 

Students who participated in yesterday’s event said they want to start a conversation on campus among people who would not necessarily be thinking about sexual assault and harassment on a day-to-day basis.

Jodi Bischoff, sexual health advocate for Rutgers Health, Outreach, Program & Education, said she participated mainly to give the movement and victims a voice.

Bischoff, a School of Environmental and Biological Sciences sophomore, said students must be active participants in the movement for the betterment of the Rutgers community.   

Boulware talked about rape culture and said it includes certain kinds of language, music and media that perpetuate sexual assault and rape. 

“Rutgers students as a community need to be more aware of enthusiastic consent and how to stop this on campus and in the community,” Boulware said.

A major idea that needs to be conveyed about sexual assault is that only “yes” means yes, Dixit said. Enthusiastic consent is really important, which not only means saying yes, but also truly meaning yes and then saying yes throughout the process.

“Sexual assault is preventable if people focus on consent rather than their personal desires or needs,” Christiansen said. “Victim blaming is never acceptable, and putting the onus of rape prevention on women is really the wrong place to put it. Rape should be prevented by potential rapists.”