Outrage over the 'Cornell 7' brought back memories of Emma Sulkowicz's Mattress Performance in 2014 and 2015. Sulkowicz studied at Columbia University in New York and alleged that she was raped by a fellow student in her dorm room on 27 August 2012.
Sulkowicz filed a complaint with the university in 2013, but the disciplinary panel found the alleged assailant, Paul Nungesser, a German student at Columbia, 'not responsible'. Sulkowicz, a visual arts major, also reported the alleged assault to the New York Police Department in May 2014, but the authorities did not pursue criminal charges against him.