At the end of October, my group and I attended a rally protest at Columbia University. This was a great experience because we got to get involved by supporting students who were victims of campus rape and people who just like us, think this is an important cause that needs to be acted on. There was in total about six hundred people at the rally. It was extremely moving to hear people tell their personal stories of rape. We got to listen to Emma Sulkowicz, Tish James (New York City Public Advocate), Allie Rickard, Rosie Hoffman, Alay Syed, Emily May, Sarah Yee, Elizabeth Adams, (Planned Parenthood of NYC) and Zoe Ridolfi-Starr. Many of the speaker brought people to tears with their stories of survival, while others were advocating for women’s rights by chanting to the crowd. I learned a lot from this because it exposed me to many different perspectives. I also now know many people that my group and I feel would be a good contact when looking for a volunteer positions or someone to interview.

The rally was extremely well organized because it had been planned well in advanced by Columbia students. When I arrived people were sitting on the Low Steps, holding up mattresses (there were almost thirty total), posters, and people were standing there wearing red tape over their mouths. Written on sheets in huge letters was “we won’t be silenced” and “carrying that weight”. The mattresses represents the weight that rape survivors must carry while they are suffering through PTSD. Meanwhile also being silenced by their own college authorities.  The crowd was chanting, “Rape culture is contagious! Come on, PrezBo, be courageous!”, “PrezBo, PrezBo, you can’t hide, be the leader on our side!” and “Mama Mama can’t you see what Columbia’s done to me? Rape culture is all around. There’s no safety to be found.” Activists created a list of 10 demands for Columbia’s administration and wrote them on a mattress. After listening to many protesters speak, Emma Sulkowicz lead people as they marched to the Columbia University president’s residence. Where they then stacked mattresses in front of his house and taped the list of demands on to his door meanwhile yelling, “No justice, no peace!”.  It ended up raining, which made the rally even more meaningful because people managed to stay through the pouring rain, which shows peoples passion for this topic. This was overall absolutely amazing and inspirational. I am really glad to have been a part of this eye opening rally. Colleges all around the country protested against campus rape that day trying to adopt a meaningful reform.