Affirmative Consent

The consent campaign officially started in January of 2016 when Students Against Sexual Assault began examining how Kent State’s definition of consent under Gender and Sexual Harassment compares to other universities’ and how our policy impacts student culture and the process of dealing with sexual assault from an administrative standpoint. The initial proposed changes to the policy were created by SASA’s general membership in order to convey the elements we consider crucial to consent. Those changes were presented to administrators in Kent State University, including Jennifer Kulics. SASA Eboard members continued to meet with administrators to revise and clarify the original draft until October 2016, at which time a final revision was agreed upon.

 

At the same time, the Consent Campaign, which serves as SASA’s activism arm has continued to promote the new policy on campus, prepare students for the new policy if passed, raise awareness of sexual assault, and give students the understanding and the tools to use affirmative consent, which we identify as the difference between sex and sexual assault. We’ve hosted numerous demonstrations to engage students in discussions about consent, boundaries, and communication.

 

Throughout the campaign, we have not only sought to advance our policy and educate students, we have worked to build the voice of survivors. Many of our demonstrations have relied heavily on the sharing of stories from survivors, and we hope that in harnessing their ability to break the silence, we can help restore the power efficacy that sexual assault has robbed too many of.