Flurry of articles re-ignite Columbia sexual assault case

Rachel Chason | USATODAY

Since September, Columbia University senior Emma Sulkowicz has made national headlines with her pledge to carry a 50-pound mattress around campus for as long as she and her alleged rapist attend the same school.

Her efforts have turned her into a national symbol in the fight against sexual assault on college campuses.

Earlier this month, a Daily Beast article called her story into question -- focusing on the perspective of the accused, Paul Nungesser, and suggesting he could be the real victim. The story has sparked a heated debate on the New York City campus.

Nungesser asserts in the article that on the night in question -- Aug. 27, 2012 -- he and Sulkowicz had consensual sex. He provided the Daily Beast with Facebook messages exchanged between himself and Sulkowicz from August, September and October 2012 that indicate they had a friendly online relationship.

Two days after the alleged rape, Nungesser messaged Sulkowicz and invited her to a “small shindig” in his room and asked her to bring freshmen.

She replied:

“lol yusss

Also I feel like we need to have some real time where we can talk about life and thingz

because we still haven’t really had a paul-emma chill sesh since summmmerrrr”

The article inspired a flurry of online responses, including an article in Jezebel in which three students who also accuse Nungesser of sexual assault were interviewed. That inlcuded a male students who hadn’t previously gone public with his story.

The school’s newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator, published several opinion pieces that further fueled the debate.

ORIGINAL REPORT: Columbia University student to carry mattress until alleged rapist leaves campus

Many Columbia students are standing by Sulkowicz -- saying that although the Daily Beast article inspired them to think about both sides of the story, it did not shake their confidence in her.

“Emma’s bravery is inspiring,” says senior Zoe Ridolfi-Starr, who co-founded No Red Tape Columbia, a student group working to end gender-based violence. “Those conversations reveal a person who is confused and who is struggling, but that doesn’t invalidate her experience.”

Ridolfi-Starr, who survived a sexual assault the summer after her freshman year, says the Daily Beast article promotes the idea that survivors of sexual assault must be “perfect victims” — who cry, cut off contact with the accused and immediately call the police — in order to be taken seriously.

Laura Dunn, founder and executive director of victims rights advocacy group SurvJustice, says understanding and processing trauma -- especially when the assailant is a trusted friend -- is more complex than this "perfect victim" narrative suggests.

“The majority of violence that harms and destroys peoples’ lives goes unacknowledged,” says Dunn, who was sexually assaulted as a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is now a nationally recognized victims' rights attorney. “When a survivor does come forward, they’re told they aren’t perfect enough. This is why the process of filing a complaint is called re-traumatizing.”

MORE COVERAGE: Campus sexual assault

Ridolfi-Starr points out that navigating life after a sexual assault is particularly complex when your friends, classes and social life exist within a five-block radius.

She says she saw her own experience mirrored in Sulkowicz's -- remembering that she was, too, was scared and confused after being assaulted, unsure how to proceed because she had seen so few stories like her own being covered in the media.

The Columbia Spectator’s editor-in-chief Michael Ouimette noted that the new information provided in the Daily Beast article and its responses have inspired students to take a second look at the case.

“Students understand how rare it is for someone in this situation to lie,” Ouimette says. “More than anything else, recent coverage is helping people realize that everyone reacts to trauma differently, and there’s no correct way to do so.”

Freshman Sarah Chiang shared a similar view -- noting that although the nature of the events mean there is no way to be absolutely sure what happened, she supports Sulkowicz.

Chiang pointed out that Nungesser, as the accused rapist, has more reason to twist his version of events than Sulkowicz, who Chiang noted has been subject to accusations that affect her reputation.

“Overall, though, I think that most Columbia students find what she is doing extremely inspiring, and I'm glad that it's sparking so much change in the university,” Chiang says.

Rachel Chason is a student at Duke University and a spring 2015 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.