One important responsibility of a good citizen is becoming educated on current issues and then actively working with other citizens to develop policies, programs, or plans for tackling those issues. One such issue is the sexual misconduct of women on college campuses. What is perhaps most disturbing about violence on college campus is that the majority of incidents, including rape and other sexual assaults, are committed by the students themselves. It is important to raise awareness around the intense reality that sexual assault still exists on U.S. college campuses because it is a major problem, especially since campus administration don't understand the extremity of the problem. .
Emma Sulkowicz alleges that a classmate sexually assaulted her on the first day of her sophomore year in August 12 on Columbia University campus in New York. She didn't report it at first because of the shame she was feeling but then met two other women that had been raped by the same person. However the school found a way to dismiss all three cases, and their rapist still goes to the same school. Emma and 22 other Columbia and Barnard students filed a federal complaint alleging that the university had mishandled sexual assault cases. Sulkowicz said in her interview, "The University is too lenient with the alleged perpetrators and discourages victims from reporting assault." Sulkowicz, for her senior thesis in September 2014, carried a mattress wherever she went on campus to protest the university's response to the allegation. Sulkowicz says she will continue carrying the mattress until the student she accused is expelled or otherwise leaves the university. Emma Sulkowicz has now become the face of the college rap survivors' movement for her famous carrying the mattress symbol. Sulkowicz's protest has garnered her awards from the New York City Chapter of the National Organization for Women and the Feminist Majority Foundation.