Columbia in the Hot Seat Over Lawsuit From Student Accused by Mattress Girl
The accused student claims the university did nothing to protect him and made his life a living hell.
The Associated Press reports.
University Defends Mattress-Carrying Project Against Lawsuit
Citing the importance of the First Amendment, Columbia University asked a judge Friday to reject a student’s lawsuit alleging the school failed to protect him after a onetime friend called him a “serial rapist” and carried a mattress around campus to protest sexual abuse.
The New York City university said in a federal court filing that it was a “fatal flaw” in Paul Nungesser’s lawsuit that he failed to sufficiently claim intentional gender discrimination by Columbia. His lawsuit alleged that the university’s actions caused him to face gender discrimination and defamation during the last school year and damaged his job prospects.
The German citizen sued the university this year, saying it effectively sponsored attacks against him by letting Emma Sulkowicz obtain class credit with a mattress-toting project that was designed to draw attention to her claims against him for a year leading up to commencement proceedings. The lawsuit said Sulkowicz has repeatedly and publicly called him a “serial rapist,” resulting in national and international media attention. The lawsuit sought unspecified damages.
University Defends Mattress-Carrying Project Against Lawsuit (The Associated Press)
Comments
All Columbia University had to do to save themselves from this lawsuit was to enforce the final determination letter concerning Mr. Nungesser and Ms. Sulkowicz after the hearing. That hearing stated that the former had not committed an offense against the latter and bound both to respect the final letter. That letter required silence from both of them. Mr. Nungesser complied; Ms. Sulkowicz did not.
Therein is the problem. If Columbia had then disciplined Ms. Sulkowicz (even ineffectually) it would have been off the hook. Hey, we tried, they could have said. But providing Ms. Sulkowicz course credit and then then allowing her to march in commencement with the mattress (a security guard couldn’t have taken it from her?) demonstrates that the university was not serious in enforcing its determination letter. That is the heart of the legal problem for Columbia.
To use a bad pun: Columbia made its bed, and now it’s sleeping in it.