Penn State Students Carried Around Matresses To Support Sexual Assault Activist Emma Sulkowicz

Columbia University senior Emma Sulkowicz has made waves throughout the higher education world for her senior thesis - a performance art protest piece titled "Carry That Weight" that obligates her to carry a mattress around campus until her alleged rapist leaves the school.

Friday, a group of Penn State University students created their own campaign, carrying around mattresses both to support Sulkowicz and to raise awareness of sexual assault on their own campus.

"It shows that issues like this can come out of the shadows and be something we can talk about ... If we don't have an ongoing dialogue, people will think this is something they can't talk about or should be ashamed of, and it needs to be addressed," one organizer told student newspaper The Daily Collegian.

Here are some pictures from the protest, via Twitter:

Penn State is not the first school where students have used Sulkowicz' mattress imagery to support the artist/protester. Wesleyan University student recently staged their own sexual assault protest with mattresses on campus: