New Campus of Consent Bill

At 7 P.M. on Wednesday the 25^th, UCS passed the Campus of Consent Bill. The bill requires that all Category 3 student groups have a liaison trained by the Sexual Assault Peer Education Program (SAPE) in order to be recognized by UCS.Category 3 groups are student groups that receive baseline funding from UCS. They make up most of the largest student groups on campus. In accordance with this bill, if each student group does not have a liaison trained annually by SAPE, they will not be recognized by UCS and will no longer receive campus funding.The bill will go into full effect in Spring 2018. An opt-in pilot program of about 20 groups is running this Spring 2017. This willingness to participate reflects the high number of campus groups that endorsed the bill even before it passed, evidence that this is something Brown’s student groups are asking for and excited about.Campus rape culture is one the main concerns of UCS this year. Currently, the only mandatory sexual assault training for students not in a fraternity or varsity sports team is during Orientation. The Campus of Consent Bill aims to tackle how the power dynamics surrounding rape culture within other prevalent on-campus groups can be changed. UCS hopes that training a liaison to present to their own student group will open up greater potential for discourse than if the ideas were presented by a stranger from SAPE. They are optimistic that the Campus of Consent Bill will increase conversations about sexual assault and sexual assault prevention within many different communities at Brown. Image via