The Carry That Weight protest spread to Madison when a group of students marched from the Capitol up State Street and Bascom Hill Wednesday afternoon, in protest of the lack of university support given to rape and sexual assault victims across the country.

The protest originated at Columbia University when student Emma Sulkowicz began to carry her dorm mattress with her everywhere she went as a performance art piece. She has said she will continue to carry her mattress with her until her rapist is expelled.

“Emma Sulkowicz was raped in her dorm and the university really bullied her into silence and to drop the charges,” Sarah Healy, senior at University of Wisconsin and organizer of the Madison chapter of Carry That Weight, said. “Her rapist still attends the university with her and is probably going to graduate when she’s going to graduate.”

Almost every university has failed over and over when addressing sexual assault allegations, Healy said.

Many universities are currently dealing with Title IX complaints regarding chapter 17, which is a universities’ code for how to respond to sexual assault and rape allegations.

“People have come forward saying, ‘You have not protected us. You have failed to protect us from sexual harassment and you’ve also failed to deal with it,’” Healy said. “Many of my friends have gone through that here and it’s very frustrating to see.”

There is an anger and frustration on every campus because universities are not handling sexual assault allegations, Healy said. The reason everyone joined this protest so quickly is because so many people have either experienced this themselves or know someone who has, she said.

Carry That Weight protests have spread across the entire country. Wednesday was the National Day of Action, on which many universities across the nation participated in this protest.

“It really struck a nerve with a lot of people because there are so many young women, young non-binary folks and young men across the country who have experienced the same frustration with not finding any support from their universities, not finding any justice through their universities,” Healy said.

One reason universities aren’t taking the time to uphold Title IX is because they do not want to acknowledge that rape happens at their university, Healy said.

“The university doesn’t want it public, they just want it to be swept under the rug,” Healy said. “If a university comes out and acknowledges sexual assaults, admissions are going to go down and that means losing money. It’s all about the name, it’s all about the pristine vision.”

UW System launched a task force to address sexual assault and violence in late September in an effort to better coordinate protection, prevention and outreach on campuses around the state.

In a previous interview with The Badger Herald, UW Chancellor Becky Blank acknowledged the underreporting of sexual assault on campus, noting the issue’s high priority.

“Our desire to both reduce the number of incidents as well to when horrific things happen, to really give people support in a way that helps them and deals with the issue,” Blank said.

The Madison chapter of Carry That Weight marched State Street chanting, “Hey ho, rape culture has got to go,” “Sexual assault is not the victims fault” and “End rape culture now.”

Senior Catie Rutledge joined the Carry That Weight protest to express her anger towards universities for disregarding strict interpretation of chapter 17.

“I am here because I know first hand that our university is not following Title IX,” Rutledge said. “They’re not doing a very good job with implementing the policies that they should be … they choose to interpret them loosely instead of strictly. I’m upset and that’s why I’m here.”

The Carry That Weight protest ended Wednesday evening when protesters left their signs and banners in front of the Division of Student Life’s office doors.

“I think the specific goals were to be heard and seen. I think we definitely accomplished that on State Street and walking up Bascom,” Healy said.