When addressing the issue of sexual assault on campus, people often get a little uneasy. However, it is a very serious issue.

Many people do not believe that it is the responsibility of the college administration to deal with it, but if the college doesn’t, then who will?

Police stations cannot investigate on their own, and they need the cooperation of the college administration to determine what happened.

Oftentimes people are too scared to report their sexual assaults, and the assailant goes unpunished. Since they go to school and often live in the same place, the victim can re-live the trauma every single time they see their attacker.

One student in particular, Emma Sulkowicz of Columbia University, has made the subject her senior thesis project.

As a piece of performance art, Sulkowicz has been carrying her mattress literally everywhere she goes. Sulkowicz says she was raped by a classmate, and the school administration failed to address the issue accordingly, as her attacker still attends school at Columbia.

This is just one example of the situations students can be put in when colleges fail to take action against sexual assaults on campus.