Conference Draft

My conference draft is found below:

Endurance Performance and Spatial Activism

INTRODUCTION

Protest and “Carry That Weight”:

Sexual assault on college campuses has become an increasing concern in recent years. Young men and women across the United States have come forward in droves with their traumatic experiences and brought their universities’ government’s, and country’s attention to their plight. Currently the the numbers say that 1 in 5 students will be sexually assaulted in college and experts estimate that 95% of campus rapes go unreported (United States). Although their tales greatly differ, one common aspect among many stories, spanning numerous universities, is students’ dissatisfaction with their administrations’ handling of their sexual assault cases. Sexual assault is always a difficult crime to prosecute but it is especially so on college campuses because the implications for the future prospects of the perpetrator, if found guilty, are significant. Furthermore, over 80% of campus rapes are committed by people known by the victim and over 75% of those incidents are committed by an intimate partner (United States). Thus students are often reluctant to go through the police and justice system for fear of entirely destroying their assaulter’s prospects. Instead victims elect to pursue their university’s judicial process and often emerge frustrated and even traumatized. Students’ complaints about their experiences include unfair judicial processes, untrained and unsympathetic interviewers, inconsistent record keeping and representation, and concern for the institution’s reputation above getting justice for victims. While these plights have recently been brought to popular attention, administrations are only now making efforts to remedy these egregious instances and, in the meantime, students are still frustrated with their treatment. There are numerous organizations calling for effective reform across the country but one of the most successful and also poignant protests was begun by one woman: Emma Sulkowicz, a visual arts student from Columbia University. Sulkowicz very astutely combined two of the most effective, modern forms of protest- performance art and occupy strategies- to not only forcefully make her point at Columbia and across the nation but also to allow herself to heal and reflect by metaphorically encapsulating the aftermath of her own sexual assault in the weight of a fifty-pound mattress.

Background to the “Mattress Performance”:

Emma Sulkowicz was allegedly raped by an acquaintance in her own room on the first night of her sophomore year in 2012. After the incident she was too traumatized and overwhelmed to come forward and accuse her assaulter for months but when she met two other women who experienced abuse at his hands, she spoke out. Sulkowicz went through both Columbia’s judicial process and also filed a complaint with the New York Police Department but was left dissatisfied by both parties. The Columbia administration, in particular, seemed to have a very unequitable process. The New York Times reported that “Columbia students say administrators tell those who file assault claims that they must not discuss their cases outsides the confines of the campus disciplinary process, though similar practices at other schools have fun afoul of federal regulators, and victim advocates call them blatantly illegal” (McDonald). Sulkowicz’s account of her interactions with university officials brought to light several troubling aspects of their sexual assault protocol (Sulkowicz). Eventually Columbia University cleared the accused, Paul Nussenger, of all charges and denied Sulkowicz’s appeal of the ruling.

As is the case with many sexual assault victims, Sulkowicz dwelled on her assault and struggled to find closure long after Columbia’s ruling on the case. The summer before her senior year she attended a residency at the Yale Summer School of Art and Music and while there her concept of the “Mattress Performance” began to take shape (Smith). Sulkowicz decided that for her senior thesis she would create a piece exemplifying endurance art and to be performed in front of the entire population of Columbia involving a standard issue, twin XL mattress, identical to the one she was raped on. She decided to carry mattress with her everywhere she went on Columbia’s campus until either Nussenger was expelled or the day they both graduated. She painted the walls of her studio with her “rules of engagement” for the project and began it on the first day of her senior year (Smith). Her performance was praised by prominent art critics for “combining aspects of endurance, body and protest art and participatory relational aesthetic [and being] carefully conceived and carried out by one person expending considerable thought, time and energy for a very long time” (Smith).

Question:

The most notable effect of Sulkowicz’s mattress performance is the amount of national attention it, and consequently her story, received. What was previously the “Mattress Performance” became a symbol for the “Carry That Weight” movement and protest across campuses in the United States. A simple mattress became a metaphor for the burden sexual victims carry with them as a result of their traumatic experiences and seemed to hit home for American citizens in a way that other protests about campus sexual assault did not. This begs the question: how did Emma Sulkowicz’s “Mattress Performance” combine elements of localist protest and endurance performance art? Why was this unique amalgamation so effective in enacting change? By understanding why “Carry That Weight” was so effective, other students and activists can adopt similar strategies in order to affect further change in their university’s sexual assault policies and hopefully solve the issue campus rape for good.

METHODS

Archive:

In order to apply critical lenses to a current protest movement, it is necessary to have multiple, highly relevant sources that contribute to both the archive and the conversation. Archive is essentially the document, or in this case the instance, being analyzed. Because “Carry That Weight” got so much national attention, there is a plethora of news articles about Sulkowicz and her project throughout the entire process. She opened up her studio and creative space for many news outlets so there are also visuals of her work accompanied by interviews where she finally got the chance to tell her own story. Furthermore, because the mattress became a universal symbol of protest against campus sexual assault, there are multiple articles detailing demonstrations on other campuses that were inspired by Sulkowicz which proves how transcendental her cause is. Finally, since the “Mattress Performance” began as a senior thesis and visual arts project, there are video interviews with Emma Sulkowicz specifically focused on the artistic inspiration and method that she implemented and its affects on her. Because Sulkowicz’s protest coincided with the Obama administration and, even more generally, the country becoming aware of and taking a stand against sexual assault on college campuses, it received a lot of media and essentially become a figurehead for people demanding policy change. Thus the archive of sources is immense and fruitful.

I think the most important information gathered from the various archives are the variety of quotes from Sulkowicz herself. Because she was, regrettably, not able to tell her story herself when going through the judiciary process at Columbia, she really took the many opportunities to talk to a variety of news sources- both about her assault and also her visual arts project. Obviously the firsthand testimony is crucial to attempting to understand her motivations and, furthermore, the insight she provides about her creative process and influences allows for more accurate comparisons between her intentions and execution of her protest compared to the two critical lenses in this essay.

Critical Lens:

The conversation and scope of critical lenses on the other hand is significantly less plentiful. As mentioned previously, endurance performance art is not widely practiced and although there are a few very famous artists and pieces from this discipline, there is not much critical analysis of the medium as a whole outside of some artists’ own interpretations. Thus my critical lens for the endurance performance art aspects of Sulkowicz’s piece come from Maria Abramovic, arguably the mother of the art form, and general scholarly articles detailing the common characteristics of performance art. Locating a critical lens for the Occupy Movement presents similar challenges. Because the protest was so striking there are numerous news articles about its occurrences all over the nation and progression but not nearly as much information attempting to typify its features or otherwise analyze the protest strategies. I am using one source which has four analytical accounts of various occupy protests to come to a consensus about the universal strategies of spatial activism to then compare with Sulkowicz’s protest.

Endurance Art:

Endurance Art is a specific type of performance art that involves some sort of hardship, such as pain, solitude, or exhaustion. The article “Endurance Art” details a traveling installation of endurance art, featuring over three dozen artists and their varying performances, and has images and testimony from the artists themselves. The pieces in this exhibition display all of the aforementioned examples of hardship among others. For example, one man hung suspended from a tree by hooks in his skin for a few hours every day (“Endurance Art”. Another man spent a year in solitary confinement with no human contact or entertainment otherwise and in a third piece a man and woman stayed attached to each other by a three-foot-long rope for 23 hours a day for three days (“Endurance Art”). The majority of these images were accompanied by quotes from the performers themselves and they often revealed the metaphorical symbolism encompassed in their physical hardship and how their individual exhibitions represented bigger issues. One man tied fifty-one large sticks to his back and ran naked throughout the streets until he eventually collapsed from exhaustion. The artist is Puerto Rican and he chose fifty-one sticks to represent Puerto Rico as a potential fifty-first state in America. His struggle with, and eventual collapse due to, the sticks was representative of the struggle and eventual moral defeat of Puerto Rican immigrants to America, just like he experienced (“Endurance Art”. Overall, endurance art involves a physical hardship of some sort that is used to bring attention to, through metaphor, a larger and more significant point.

Performance Art:

Performance art is a piece of fine art that derives its significance from being performed by the artist to its audience. In the context of this paper, I am focusing specifically on exhibitions that derive importance from the space in which they are performed. Marina Abramovic is widely considered the mother of modern performance art and an article by Soraya McDonald in the Washington Post focuses on her most recent piece, “512 Hours”. “512 Hours” was an installation at the Serpentine Museum in London in which Abramovic would sit at one end of a long table, silent, for eight hours a day and invite viewers to sit at the other end until they had their fill (McDonald). While this piece may seem quite simply, visually, Abramovic believed that “many things will happen in that space. It will be very physical and performative” (McDonald). Relating performance art to space, performance artists are usually given a room, like Abramovic was, to make of what they will. The performance space is confined to the room and some artists even take steps to ensure that only direct viewers get to experience it; for example, Abramovic banned any photography or cellphones in the room where she performed “512 Hours” so as to preserve the sanctity of the performance space. Overall, performance art’s key trademark is manipulating a space for the performance and having the performance itself be the aspect that conveys the point the artist intended to make.

Occupy Movements:

The Occupy Movement is an uprising of the “99%” of common Americans against the 1% who hold the majority of the wealth in the country. Beginning with Occupy Wall Street, the movement implements an occupation strategy so that the group’s frustrations and calls for change cannot be ignored (Davis). Essentially, large groups of people flock to urban centers, such as famous landmarks, business districts, notable corporations in the area, or even just the center of the city and “occupy” the space while peacefully protesting the inequitable distribution of wealth and the social inequalities caused by this. Angela Davis writes that the demonstrations have drawn crowds that are “multi-racial, multi-generational, multi-gender, multi- everything” and they have gathered a lot of media attention. While Occupy may seem to be more of a traditional protest with bringing the issue very publicly to the streets, Davis emphasizes that there is also an artistic component with each region having its own individual signs and rallying symbols. She praises the individualism in the art, saying, “Art drives movements for radical social change. Art helps us to find our way into new dimensions. Art helps up to give expression to what might be considered impossible in the world that it is.” She attributes the successful connections between the various occupy movements to the unifying themes in their art and their message.

The Occupy Movements are also a prime example of localist protest. Rather than Occupy groups taking all of their members to Capitol Hill, they remain in their own cities, where the inequality is felt personally for every member of the protest. Occupy’s strategy has been to take over the exact same space where they want to see the change they are advocating for. This is effective because it ensures that the people they need to reach cannot ignore them and, furthermore, motivates other locals that are not yet part of the protest to join because it is in their backyard and they directly relate to the structural inequalities that local Occupy protests are fighting to alleviate.

In “On Occupy”, James Lawson clearly states a formula, derived from historical instances, of how to overthrow and authoritarian government. He lists three components: “an escalation of unity of purpose,” “a plan,” and “an emergence of nonviolent discipline” (Davis). He then connects all of these features to occurrences in the Occupy Movement’s progression. For example, the Boston Occupy group’s broadening of their efforts when Lawson, in a speech, compelled them to realize that their audience is not just corporate America but rather the entire citizenry (Davis). These three qualities become very important later in this essay when I attempt to prove that not only is Emma Sulkowicz’s use of space in the “Mattress Performance similar to Occupy’s, but also that her creative process and execution mirrors Occupy’s progression.

RESULTS

Analysis:
The “Mattress Performance” and Endurance Performance Art:

“Carry That Weight” undoubtedly uses Endurance Performance Art as a medium to convey Emma Sulkowicz’s dissatisfaction with Columbia’s administration. Art critic Roberat Smith describes her project as such: “The work Ms. Sulkowicz is making is strict and lean, yet inclusive and open ended, symbolically laden yet drastically physical. All of this determines its striking quality as art, which in turn contributes substantially to its effectiveness as protest.” The weight of the mattress is like the constant burden she carries as a survivor of sexual assault and this immense load is obviously a physical burden. In an interview with “Democracy Now”, Sulkowicz added further metaphorical significance to her piece that may have been less obvious, saying, “In my case, I was raped in my own bed. Of course, rape can happen anywhere, but for me, it sort of desecrated one of the most intimate and private places of my life and the way that I’ve brought my story from a place that I keep secret out into the public eye sort of mirrors carrying the mattress out into the light for everyone” (McDonald”. Furthermore, it is very obvious from her interviews that Emma Sulkowicz is very well-read about her subject and chosen medium. She often used verbiage consistent with her contemporaries in Endurance Performance art when describing her performance and its impact. In a forum discussion she describes the progression of her project: “The performance space is beyond the mattress […] the mattress as a space moves beyond the physical” (Brooklyn Museum). Overall, “Carry That Weight” is undeniably a quintessential example of endurance performance art.

The “Mattress Performance” and the Occupy Movement:

Through research about Sulkowicz’s methods of carrying out her performance as well as reading numerous interviews with her, I believe that her protest fits the characteristics of a successful protest that Lawson in “On Occupy” contends that the Occupy Movement aimed to emulate as well. The first aspect was an “escalation of unity of purpose” (Davis). For one, what started as an individual performance by Sulkowicz quickly spread around her campus and eventually the nation, with everyone who picked up the mattress as a symbol calling for the same change. Furthermore, Sulkowicz personally escalated her commitment to the project and evolved with it in numerous ways such as adapting to changing environmental conditions, adding components to the project, and realizing that “the performance is giving her new muscles and an inner strength she didn’t know she had” (Smith). The second characteristic was having a plan which Sulkowicz obviously exhibited through her meticulously crafted “Rules of Engagement”, as well as having to actually get project approval by a faculty adviser because the performance was also her senior, visual arts thesis (Steinhauer). The final feature in Lawson’s list was nonviolent protest. Sulkowicz adapted nonviolent protest somewhat in her performance (Davis). Because “Carry That Weight” conveyed its message through art and not overt public demonstration, it was already nonviolent but Sulkowicz took this one step further by never “performing” directly to make a stand in front of the people she felt did her wrong- her rapist and Columbia administrators. Rather she carried out her protest despite them and the “Mattress Performance” made its significant impact regardless of their presence and involvement.

Another key similarity between the Occupy Movement and the “Mattress Performance” is the importance of the performance site. Similar to Occupy’s deliberate choices to stage sit-ins at corporate centers in cities so that the location was directly relevant to its message, Sulkowicz was very particular about her performance area as well. When asked why she only carried the mattress on Columbia University property and not all the time she responded: “[the “Mattress Performance”] is very site specific. If I carried it around New York City, it would turn into a piece about homeless and while I’m glad it may have that affect that isn’t necessarily what I want” (Brooklyn Museum). Thus, “Carry That Weight” gains significance from where it is performed. In contrast to traditional exhibitions of performance art, Sulkowicz not only brought her protest to the streets but also allowed others to become tangibly involved by permitting them to help carry her burden if they asked to. She considered them to be “entering her performance space” and begun to also write about her varying experiences with others in her “Mattress Diary” (Smith). In the same way, the Occupy movement also encourages others to get involved by unifying people through alerting them to a shared plight that they are sympathetic to- just like a petite young woman struggling with a heavy mattress.

Sulkowicz’s Thoughts About Her Piece:

Emma Sulkowicz embarked on her “Mattress Performance” not knowing what to expect. She constantly revised her rules of engagement, added components to the piece to make it more well-rounded such as a diary, and combatted new struggles daily (Brooklyn Museum). In an interview she stated that, despite the numerous metaphorical connections and frenzy the media put forth, “the piece was about an honest struggle with the mattress” (Brooklyn Musesum).  While she was symbolically protesting her university’s sexual assault protocol, she urged in interviews that people not forget the visual arts component: ““I think ‘protest’ sort of ignores the real endurance and performance aspect of it, and how I really have to start constructing my day and every thought around, what does it mean in terms of this art piece? That’s very different from protest” (Brooklyn Museum).

Outside Perspectives:

Interestingly, although Sulkowicz’s piece is obviously an example of endurance performance art, she did not begin her senior thesis with this medium in mind. While at the Yale summer program she attended, she began to play around with the idea of the mattress and eventually decided to carry it around. Jon Kessler, a professor at Columbia and Sulkowicz’s advisor on for her senior thesis, tells the story of her progression:

The impulse was there for her to carry the bed around, and she didn’t necessarily have the information as to how that would fit into the context or the history of performance art. So this summer we got involved in phone conversations about the nature of endurance art, talking about pieces by Tehching Hsieh and Marina and Ulay and Chris Burden (Steinhauer).

However, despite the obvious connection to these artists through their chosen medium, Kessler also noticed a distinct difference in motive: “More than any of those people, Emma’s work comes from something which is so much more personal and so much deeper […] really about working something out cathartically and also making an enormous statement for change (Steinhauer). He believes that this key difference is what made her movement so powerful. I argue that this sentiment is very similar to that of Occupy protestors detailed above. Thus, the localist aspect that Sulkowicz’s “Mattress Performance” included enhanced the endurance performance art piece and is directly responsible to its success in affecting change.

Marina Abramovic, as the universally agreed upon expert in endurance performance art, was eventually asked for her thoughts on Emma Sulkowicz’s piece. She shared her admiration of Sulkowicz with New York Magazine: “Many people don’t have the willpower to stick to something no matter what, and that’s what she’s doing” (McDonald). However, she also revealed an artistic curiosity about Sulkowicz’s next step: “An artist doesn’t make a name with one piece, they have to make a body of work” (McDonald). I think that this latter quote is very revealing about the aforementioned differences between the motivations of traditional endurance performance artists and Emma Sulkowicz’s piece. Although Sulkowicz has released a few other pieces across different mediums concerned with rape and sex, she has not continued the “Mattress Performance” or really any pieces like it since she graduated from Columbia. While professional performance artists are concerned with continuing their concentrations and advancing their artistic perspective, Sulkowicz’s “Carry That Weight” was much more personal, as noted by her professor, and also had a cathartic aspect for her. This stark difference leads me to believe that the true significance of the “Mattress Performance” is more due to its localist aspects than the artistic medium it uses to convey the intended message.

Instances of Replication (Using the Mattress as a Symbol):

Because the “Mattress Performance” garnered so much media attention almost immediately after Sulkowicz began the piece in her senior year at Columbia, the metaphorical symbolism of the mattress spread like wildfire across the nation. Within two weeks one hundred students staged a rally at Columbia University, holding signs with red tapes over their mouths and toting a dozen mattresses (Steinhauer). Three of the mattresses had “Carry That Weight” written on them in red tape, undeniably connecting their demonstration to Sulkowicz’s protest of how university administrators handled her rape case (Steinhauer). On October 29th of that same year there was a “Carry That Weight” National Day of Action nationwide, that even had financial backing from a notable crowdfunding platform. A Washington Post article interviewed Faith Ferber, a student at American University and organizer of her school’s day of action. Ferber herself was already an activist in her own right but Sulkowicz’s story struck a chord with her and she was motivated to participate, saying, “we have to hope that [this protest is] going to light a fire under their butts, because…negative media attention is sometimes the only thing that will push a university to start acting” (Kaplan). Beyond this day of action, the mattress cropped up in numerous protests against universities’ handling of sexual assault throughout the rest of the year. The “Mattress Performance” even culminated in a public demonstration at Columbia University’s 2015 Commencement. Even though Columbia instituted a sexual respect education requirement that February, Emma Sulkowicz’s piece was still unsatisfied because her rapist was still on campus (Taylor). As promised, she walked across the graduation stage to receive her diploma toting her mattress with the help of four friends (Taylor). Many students in the crowd had a strip of red tape on their light blue graduation caps to signify that they stood in solidarity with Emma and her protest (Taylor). This finale to her performance transpired right in front of her alleged rapist, Paul Nussenger, and the Columbia administration that misrepresented her story.

DISCUSSION

Answer to Question:

The “Mattress Performance” was undoubtedly a revolutionary piece of art and also protest. Although it divided many art critics, activists, and citizens, the exhibition was extremely effective in sparking a conversation. It brought significant attention to a pervasive issue that the United States was only beginning to realize at the time and the country has since then taken great strides to end instances of sexual assault and rape on college campuses. Emma Sulkowicz’s unique combination of techniques from endurance performance art and spatial activism from the Occupy Movement allowed her “Mattress Performance” to directly effect those around her as well as spark the “Carry That Weight” protest, which reached a wide audience, and turned a simple dorm room mattress into a rallying point against campus sexual assault. The metaphorical relationship between her performance space and sexual assault is very similar to themes in other endurance performance art but her piece’s entrance into and manipulation of public space is comparable to strategies of the Occupy Movement. This combination of techniques was effective in first gaining attention because of the artistic aspect and then began to affect change due to her commitment to the project and overtness of the issue.

So What?

Protest tactics have evolved greatly over the past century. Previously, protest was nearly always synonymous with violence, screaming, oppression, and destruction of property. When this strategy eventually lessened in its effectiveness, it gave way to peaceful protest and even silent demonstrations. Boycotts contrasted with sit-ins which even progressed to die-ins. Performers, writers, and artists became activists when they directed their crafts beyond aesthetic and began to express and represent their views on modern issues through their work. The 21st century has brought to light many social issues that were previously ignored and appear to be pervasive and even institutionalized. Thus, protest tactics have had to evolve once again to adapt to combat these new problems.

One of the most notable protests of this century so far have been the Occupy Protests and their strategy of relentlessly “occupying” a space has even been adopted by other movements such as Black Lives Matter. The Occupy Protests brought people’s frustration to the streets and thus made the issues they were clamoring to change impossible to ignore. However, even these initially peaceful occupy protests have led to some ugly confrontations and harm. On the other hand, artistic exhibitions of protest, although they essentially invite critics, are usually seen as more sophisticated and thus receive a less violent pushback. Artists are often given a performance space in a museum or otherwise make their own in a studio so that when viewers enter the space they are immersed in the exhibition. However, these demonstrations are less accessible to the general public and the artists and their movements are relatively unknown to those outside of the art world. Both protest strategies obviously have their strengths and weaknesses, but it appears that one’s fault is compensated for by a strength of the other.

Emma Sulkowicz’s “Mattress Performance” astutely combined the best of both tactics and made her protest both sophisticated and widely recognizable. By making a standard mattress a powerful symbol for the “Carry That Weight” movement, Sulkowicz ensured that her message could spread and endure. Her process and project have two critical nuggets of significance for future activists. For one, specifically to those advocating to improve campus sexual assault policy, they now have a story and rallying point to carry through their entire movement until they achieve their goals. The mattress has already been the figurehead at multiple protests on college campuses, nationwide, and the object has not lost its significance. Secondly, for modern activists in general, after analyzing Sulkowicz’s work in general they now have a blueprint for impactful and poignant protest. Her process and and methods were undoubtedly successful at communicating her point, emphasizing the necessity for change, and reaching an immense audience and, similar to Martin Luther King Jr. emulating Gandhi with peaceful protest, other social activists could benefit by learning from her example. I am not suggesting that this is a guaranteed strategy for success, or that it would be easy to replicate Sulkowicz’s highly involved and organic process, but rather that her unique take on protest adds to the conversation of successful strategies. As a visual arts student and sexual assault survivor, the “Mattress Performance” was an only logical amalgamation of Sulkowicz’s aptitudes and influences. Thus she had commitment to the process and appropriate knowledge and verbiage to convey her message. If another protest movement had a leader with similar background and dedication, I think it would be advisable for them to consider Emma Sulkowicz a key influence while crafting their demonstration.

Works Cited

Brooklyn Museum. “Carry That Weight.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 17 Dec. 2014.    Web. 1 February 2016.

Davis, Angela et al.. “On Occupy”. Race, Poverty & the Environment 18.2 (2011): 76–83. Web.

“Endurance Art”. “Endurance Art”. Performing Arts Journal 18.3 (1996): 66–70. Web.

Kaplan, Sarah. “How a Mattress Became a Symbol for Student Activists Against Sexual Assault.”         Washington Post. The Washington Post, 28 Nov. 2014. Web. 01 Feb. 2016.

McDonald, Soraya Nadia. “Even When She’s Doing ‘Nothing,’ Marina Abramović Gets People        Talking.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, 10 June 2014. Web. 1 Feb. 2016.

McDonald, Soraya Nadia. “It’s Hard to Ignore a Woman Toting a Mattress Everywhere She Goes,    Which Is Why Emma Sulkowicz Is Still Doing It.” Washington Post. The Washington     Post, 29 Oct. 2014. Web. 01 Feb. 2016.

Smith, Roberta. “In a Mattress, a Lever for Art and Political Protest.” The New York Times. The       New York Times, 21 Sept. 2014. Web. 01 Feb. 2016.

Steinhauer, Jillian. “Two Weeks Into Performance, Columbia Student Discusses the Weight of          Her Mattress.” Hyperallergic RSS. N.p., 17 Sept. 2014. Web. 1 Feb. 2016.

Sulkowicz, Emma. “‘My Rapist Is Still on Campus'” Time. Time, 15 May 2014. Web. 13 Feb.         2016.

Taylor, Kate. “Mattress Protest at Columbia University Continues Into Graduation Event.” The          New York Times. The New York Times, 19 May 2015. Web. 1 Feb. 2016.

United States. National Institute of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Sexual Assault on Campus:     What Colleges and Universities Are Doing About It. By Heather M. Karjane, Bonnie S.  Fisher, and Francis T. Cullen. Washington D.C.: Research for Practice, Dec. 05. Print