DISCLOSURE: Reporter Tipheret Peña, who is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota, is a violence prevention educator at the Aurora Center for advocacy and education, which is mentioned throughout the story.
By TIPHERET PEÑA/Murphy News Service
The University of Minnesota’s recent sexual activity consent policy change has started positive conversations among students and staff, but still seems to be leaving some people confused.
The U implemented an affirmative-consent policy in late August, that defines consent as “informed, freely and affirmatively communicated willingness to participate in sexual activity that is expressed by clear and unambiguous words or actions.” The policy differs slightly from the previous policy, which defined consent as “informed, freely and actively given, and mutually understood.”
“The difference with our policy then, and how it’s evolved over the summer, is that our new consent policy really clarifies what is not consent,” said Katie Eichele, director of the Aurora Center for advocacy and education at the university. The center is a resource on campus that provides free and confidential services to members of the university and Augsburg College communities on issues of sexual assault, relationship violence and stalking.
Factors such as the lack of protest, withdrawal of consent and the existence of a present or past romantic relationship are now clearly addressed in the policy as things that do not qualify as consent.
The policy change was put into place about a week before incoming freshmen arrived for welcome week activities. It faced challenges from its conception and was ultimately made a reality by student leaders.
Minnesota Student Association (MSA) representatives throughout the 2014-2015 school year created a campaign titled “No Gray” to create awareness about sexual violence on college campuses and to promote an affirmative-consent policy change. The campaign sponsored events and trainings for the campus community, such as “How to Love: Supporting a Friend in Crisis” which gave information on how to handle disclosures from friends and family members.
Working with MSA is one of the actions that helped the policy move forward, Eichele said. She has been working toward an affirmative consent policy since 2011.
“That student activism coupled with legislative action, support by the White House and President Obama, the reauthorization of the violence against women,” Eichele said. “All those legislative pieces on the federal level have then, of course, made universities comply with their policies and procedures.”
The University of Minnesota Board of Regents decided on July 8 to postpone the affirmative-consent policy implementation until after the school year had started, rather than in July as planned.
Undergraduate Student Body President Joelle Stangler in response created a petition on Change.org which demanded the affirmative-consent policy to be started immediately.
“Waiting until September means … three more months without the stronger protection for victim-survivors during the first few months of school, months where the likelihood of being a victim of sexual assault is drastically higher than other times during the year,” Stangler wrote on the petition’s website.
More than 900 signatures were added to the petition on its first day on the website and attracted the attention of the Star Tribune, which published an article on the policy which included a thumbnail of a consent contract that is distributed by The Affirmative Consent Project, a national advocacy group.
The contract pictured in the thumbnail asks people to take photographs of themselves and their partner(s) holding the contract and asks them to fill out a form to confirm consent was given.
The inclusion of the thumbnail in an article specifically focusing on the university immediately sparked confusion and concern in the university community.
Those concerns had been addressed by volunteers at the Aurora Center. Enoch Sun, direct service advocate at the center and a sophomore at the U, said he had a person stop by a tabling event and ask if students need to take photographs before initiating sexual activity.
“People do not need to take any pictures and they don’t need to sign the contract to initiate any sexual activity,” Sun said.
Stangler’s petition ended up with 1,695 signatures and led university President Eric Kaler to request and be granted authority by the Board of Regents to immediately implement the affirmative-consent policy.
There are still students and staff, however, who have likely not heard of the policy change at all.
When asked if she had heard of the new policy, sophomore Ellie Rathe said “I really don’t know anything about it honestly.”
While student leaders on campus have been successful in transforming the campus climate and putting the affirmative-consent policy in place, some said that confusion and concern about the new policy still exist.
There are some who oppose the policy, claiming that it will likely increase false reporting.
“We’ve looked at actually Canada who’s had a criminal standard of affirmative consent since 1992 and their increased reports of false reporting has not gone up,” Eichele said.
Melissa Hallenbeck, violence prevention educator at the center and senior at the U, said she is excited for the new policy but knows that many misconceptions still exist.
“People think this is going to drastically affect their sex lives and it’s really not,” she said. “You should be checking in with people anyways … if anything people should really start looking at this as a positive thing because it really allows us to start addressing what is OK in a relationship before we initiate things.”