There’s no better way to treat college students as responsible adults, than forcing them to sit through a musical number on the definition of consent.
Each year during freshman orientation, the incoming class of students at the University of Indiana at Bloomington watches a musical performance about obtaining consent for sexual activity, according to Inside Higher Ed.
Lyrics to the song include:
When you’re havin’ a good night
And things are goin’ well
But you don’t know where it’s goin’
It’s sometimes hard to tell
So if you think it’s goin’ somewhere
And you might go all the way
There’s something you gotta ask for
There’s something you need to say!
“It sounds cheesy, but let me tell you that many students will tell us that they remember the definition of consent from that song and sing it to us later,” IU’s associate dean of students Carol McCord told Inside Higher Ed.
In March, the entire Indiana University system updated its sexual misconduct policy to require “affirmative consent” from students for every sexual encounter.
The policy emphasizes that “consent cannot be assumed based on silence, the absence of ‘no’ or ‘stop’, the existence of a prior or current relationship, or prior sexual activity.”
Over the past year, many colleges across the country have adopted similar “yes means yes” policies, and it is now statewide law in both California and New York that all college campuses must include affirmative consent in their sexual misconduct policies.
This year’s freshman class at IU will also take part in group discussions after watching the consent musical, and McCord said programming on consent will continue throughout the year.
h/t Inside Higher Ed
