Emma Sulkowicz, a Columbia University student who just graduated, carried her mattress with her to the procession as a continued act of spreading awareness about her alleged rapist.
Sulkowicz claimed she was raped by fellow Columbia student, Paul Nungesser, in 2012 and she has been carrying her mattress with her around campus until he's kicked out of the school. Unfortunately for her, he never got kicked off campus and she continued to carry the mattress all the way up until graduation day.
Last year, she told the Columbia Spectator, “The piece could potentially take a day, or it could go on until I graduate.”
New York Mag reports she turned it into her senior thesis, which she titled Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight).
It wasn’t clear at first if Sulkowicz was able to bring the mattress to the graduation ceremony, as the university wrote in an email on Monday, “Graduates should not bring into the ceremonial area large objects which could interfere with the proceedings or create discomfort to others in close, crowded spaces shared by thousands of people.”
However, it was well documented on social media. The Columbia Spectator even posted a video of Sulkowicz carrying the mattress onstage with her with the help of a few classmates.