All freshmen at Indiana University at Bloomington have to attend a musical performance teaching them them how to not rape each other as part of their mandatory new-student orientation.
According to an article in Inside Higher Ed, students at IU are “required to complete an online module on sexual assault and misconduct before coming to campus, and at orientation will see a musical, written by a student who has since graduated, that ends with a song about consent.”
Carol McCord, the associate dean of students at the school, told Inside Higher Ed: “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.”
McCord insisted that despite how cheesy it sounds it was still important because many students say “they remember the definition of consent from that song and sing it to us later.”
Reading the actual lyrics, however, it seems like most of the “information” offered in the song would already be obvious to anyone with a brain and a soul:
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!
You gotta get … consent!
If you think you’re gonna do it, you need consent.
Consent … whoa consent
If you’re waitin’ to go further you need consent
Consent … whoa consent
So if you’re hangin’ with your girl
You think you might go for a whirl
All you’ve got to do . . . is get consent!
Consent . . . whoa consent . . .”
“Consent is unmistakable . . . it’s often verbal . . . it’s uncoerced . . . it’s freely given . . . and if you’ve got those things together, that’s consent! Consent . . . whoa consent!”
Yep. That’s right, kids — you’ve got to actually make sure a girl wants to have sex with you and that you’re not forcing her to have sex with you before you have sex with her. Crazy, huh?
#related#Maybe I’m giving humanity too much credit, but I really do think that most of these students probably already realize that. I also have my doubts that sexual assaults on campus occur because the aggressors simply don’t realize that they’re raping people and that things would be different if they had just heard a song about how to not rape first.
Still, IU–Bloomington is not the only school taking this approach. Inside Higher Ed reports that New York University has also made a “theatrical performance” about consent part of its freshman orientation.
According to IU–Bloomington’s official website, anyone who is a new “degree-seeking student” is “required to attend [orientation] in order to register for classes,” and also has to pay a $149 fee for it.
This story was originally covered in an article in the College Fix.