Despite making campus sexual assault a high priority in his presidency, Barack Obama did not breach the topic in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.

According to the Huffington Post, Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) brought Emma Sulkowicz as a guest to the SOTU, but the President focused most of his higher education remarks on financial issues. He spoke about federal student loans, his newly unveiled free community college proposal and the rising cost of a four-year degree, but not sexual assault.

Sulkowicz became the face of sexual assault reform at Columbia with her "Carry That Weight" visual arts project in which she vowed to carry her mattress around campus until the man she claims to have raped her on it is punished. Before her demonstration began, several students Columbia filed a federal Title IX complaint against the school for their policies and practices in matters of sexual assault.

"We appreciate the administration's commitment to this issue, but it was a missed opportunity to talk about not just making colleges more affordable, but also safer," Glen Caplin, a spokesman for Gillibrand, told the HP.

The Obama Administration has launched two campaigns - Not Alone and It's On Us - to bring awareness to what the President called an "epidemic." The campaigns are both tailored to bring awareness, but Not Alone is geared toward victims of sexual assault whereas It's On Us calls men to advocate for the end of sexual assault.

During Obama's presidency, the Education Department also began publicly disclosing the schools it is investigating for Title IX and Clery Act complaints. The current count is up near 100, though the ED closed multiple probes in the past calendar year.

"The president touched on many important issues in his address," Annie Clark, co-founder of End Rape on Campus who also helped advise the White House on the topic, told the HP. "However, this administration has been the most active in American history on the issue of college sexual assault, so it's disappointing Obama didn't even mention campus rape in his address."

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