This was one of the quotes Miller proposed to Stanford for the plaque, which university officials rejected because it could be "triggering" for survivors of sexual violence. Using a smartphone or iPad camera, visitors can see a digital plaque imposed onto the garden as if it were there.

"You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today."

In 2018, talks between Stanford University and Chanel Miller broke down when the university rejected two quotes she proposed for a plaque to be installed at a campus memorial — the site where Miller was sexually assaulted by Brock Turner four years ago. For those who didn't know what happened there, the small garden with benches and a bubbling fountain outside a fraternity house has remained just that.

Austin Zambito-Valente, 21, right; Sandro Hall, 21; and Sandra Schachat, 32, participate in an augmented reality app created to honor Chanel Miller, the woman who was sexually assaulted by Brock Turner, at the site where the assault took place on campus on Sept. 27. Photo by Sammy Dallal.

Stanford University literature professor David Palumbo-Liu, left; student Sandro Hall, 21; and doctorate student Sandra Schachat, 32, engage with "Dear Visitor," an augmented reality app where they hear the voice of Chanel Miller, the woman who recently identified herself as the person former student Brock Turner sexually assaulted on campus in 2015. Photo taken Sept. 27 by Sammy Dallal.

Jean Bilek interacts with an augmented reality app created to honor Chanel Miller, the woman who was sexually assaulted by Brock Turner, at a memorial garden built in the area where the assault took place on campus. Photo by Sammy Dallal.

Stanford University literature professor David Palumbo-Liu, left; student Sandro Hall, 21; and doctorate student Sandra Schachat, 32, use an augmented reality app created to honor Chanel Miller, the woman who was sexually assaulted by Brock Turner, at the site where the assault took place on campus. Photo taken on Sept. 27, 2019 by Sammy Dallal.

Stanford Provost Persis Drell and Senior Associate Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Access Lauren Schoenthaler also signed off on the final project. They are among the people in power at Stanford that the students want to send a message to with their project.

They got in touch with Miller — who was at the time still anonymous, known to the world by the pseudonym Emily Doe — to ask for her permission, which she gave, Schroeder said. They showed her a soft-launch version last spring.

"Stanford students care what Chanel Miller has to say. Her words matter to us and our project is trying to center and elevate her voice in a space that was supposed to be where she would reclaim her voice and flip the narrative," Schroeder said.

"At the beginning, so many people told us we shouldn't do it — that it was too raw, that it was too difficult, that it would be impossible to stick the right tone," she said. "It has been really difficult but we went ahead and did it anyway.

Hope Schroeder, Kyle Qian and Khoi Le were all leaders in Stanford's augmented and virtual reality communities. Schroeder graduated this spring, Qian is a recent graduate of Stanford's master's in computer science program and Le is finishing his senior year. They teamed up for a separate augmented reality project, funded by a grant from Stanford's Brown Institute for Media Innovation, using the technology to bring context to Confederate monuments in Charleston, South Carolina. They needed to start with a local prototype and found "a huge conflict of public space happening in our very own backyard," Schroeder said in an interview.

To prevent the loss of institutional memory about the Turner case, they decided to interview students and graduates about the memorial and its significance. Clips from those interviews are posted on the project website and are featured in the augmented reality app. They're also inviting people who visit the garden to write letters with their responses to "further create collective memory about how the community feels about this issue," Schroeder said. The letters will also be posted on the website.

Over months of working on the app, they visited the garden often and would find beer cans and Juul pods there. Students told them they overheard conversations about sexual exploits coming through open windows at the neighboring student residence. They interviewed students who lived nearby but had no idea why the garden had been created.

"Most students, including myself, feel that the promise to Chanel to put the quote on the plaque that she requested should be honored and that it sends a really concerning message if that doesn't happen," Schroeder said.

"We commend Chanel Miller's courage," they wrote. "We also want to recognize the courage of fellow community members who are survivors of sexual violence. We are in solidarity with you."

In an email to students on the book's release, four administrators, including the director of Stanford's Office of Sexual Assault and Relationship Abuse and the interim assistant vice provost for residential education, offered campus resources available to students who might be affected.

This week, Miller released her memoir, "Know My Name," providing for the first time a window into her full identity and her experience of the assault and aftermath.

Hundreds of students and alumni also signed a petition this week calling on the university to "publicly acknowledge and apologize for not upholding their agreement to use a quote chosen by Chanel Miller" and immediately install a plaque with her chosen quote.

The augmented reality project is temporary, accessible only at an event that was held on Friday or by contacting the creators. They are hoping their university will take up the helm by installing a real-world plaque.

These students are using augmented reality to honor Chanel Miller's words on the Stanford campus

Student group, petition demand university install plaque at memorial garden