Cambridge University hasn’t been getting a great reputation recently. Members of their drinking society were caught onvideo chanting ‘rape, rape’ in the street last month. And a recent Varsity study just found that almost half of the students polled had been ‘groped, pinched or grabbed’ during their time at the uni and over 100 had dealt with ‘attempted serious sexual assault’.
So perhaps it’s not surprising that the University is looking at way to stamp out this culture. One such method that’s up for consideration is introducing mandatory consent classes for all new students.
The hour-long workshops, which would be created by women’s officer Laura Steele, would be compulsory for both male and female students and would explain what consent means.
‘The health and well-being committee is currently examining the impact of rape and sexual assaults on students in Cambridge. Its members have been meeting with student representatives and internal and external parties working in this area. No decision has been made yet,’ a spokesperson for Cambridge University told The Debrief, about the proposed classes.
But if they do go ahead, the workshops would also break down commonly held myths such as a perception that women often falsely accuse men of sexual assault or rape and that agreeing to do one thing sexual means that you have agreed to do everything else as well.
Laura Bates of Everyday Sexism, who has spoken extensively about the issue of ‘lad culture’ on campus, believes the classes can‘t come soon enough. ‘A spate of recent reports has suggested that a worryingly high number of female students experience sexual harassment and sexual violence during their time at university,’ she told The Debrief.
‘Meanwhile we have seen an increase in reports of misconceptions and confusion around rape, consent and healthy relationships. Student club nights are being advertised under names like ‘Fresher’s Violation’. Sports club members are going out wearing ‘casual rape’ T-Shirts and playing ‘games’ like ‘it’s not rape if...’
‘These issues need to be discussed clearly at school, and topics such as consent, healthy relationships and sexual violence should be made compulsory on the school curriculum, to be taught in an age-appropriate way from early on.
‘But while we will continue to fight for this measure to be adopted, in the current situation where many students approach university without having been given any support or information around these topics, the idea of offering workshops to university students seems like a pragmatic step forward to plug the gap.’
As ever, she’s got a point. Education about sex eduction in schools does need a radical overhaul – perhaps even more urgently than anyone thought if students are getting to university, aged 18, and don’t know the very black-and-white delineation of what consent means. (Short answer: if they say no, they mean no).
And it certainly makes a nice change from the usual victim blaming anti-rape advice– you know, don’t walk home alone, don’t get too drunk and don’t booze.
As depressing as it is that consent classes are necessary in the first place, at least they seem to be about talking to both genders in a considered, sensible way about a problem that sadly isn’t going anywhere.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophiecullinane
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.