No Red Tape, the anti-rape activist group at Columbia University, projected the words “Rape happens here” and “Columbia has a rape problem” across the facade of the campus library Sunday night. The demonstration was timed to coincide with prospective students visiting the campus. An administrator reportedly physically blocked the projector to keep the messages from being displayed.
According to reports from campus papers Bwog and the Columbia Spectator, which we saw via Gothamist, No Red Tape’s demonstration happened during Days on Campus, the school’s annual event for prospective students. According to the Spectator, a campus administrator tried to block the messages with her body, saying they were a “safety hazard:”
But the activists were met by a bit of pushback from Residence Hall Director Aaron Hukari and Graduate Hall Directors Rainikka Corprew and Meghan Chidsey, who arrived at the protest at approximately 8 p.m., just as the protesters were setting up the projection. A number of Public Safety officers also were present during the protest.
Corprew, who declined to comment, physically blocked the projector from displaying messages onto Low Library, telling activists the projection was a safety hazard because the light was blinding to individuals inside Low.
As Corprew attempted to block the projector, she audibly told the activists, “I feel like I’m being violated in the same way that you’re defending women’s bodies… It’s like you’re becoming the oppressors.”
(Correction, 8:40 p.m.: Meghan Chidsey, one of the administrators named, emailed Jezebel to say that the Spectator’s account is inaccurate and that she wasn’t present at the protest: “Simply put I haven’t been on duty for a month and wasn’t even in New York this past weekend.”)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
