First lesson for new McMaster students: What consent looks like

As students are welcomed to campus at McMaster University this week, there's special focus being paid to consent, sexual violence and healthy relationships.

It represents a big change in tone for the university's welcome week schedule, said Meaghann Ross, the Sexual Violence Response Co-ordinator with the university's Human Rights and Equity Services office.  

"What consent looks like, what it entails, how do you enact whatever desires or relationships you'd like?" she said of some of the messaging going out to new students.

There are buttons and flyers with the #Consent hashtag, posters with reminders like "someone who is drunk cannot consent to sex." 

Mac is among a growing number of Canadian universities giving greater prominence among its frosh week fun to the issue of consent, following some high profile incidents on campuses across the country in recent years.

It's a bit of a tricky juxtaposition with the excitement and levity of meeting new friends and classmates and, for some students, entering campus life for the first time.

Hence a forum title for Thursday: "Cookies and consent." 

Sean Van Koughnett, McMaster dean of students and an associate VP at the school, said the sexual violence and consent focus joins emphasis on mental health and wellness and alcohol responsibility — "heavy topics that we're focusing on along with all the fun stuff," Van Koughnett said.

The themes are aimed at fostering an "inclusive and safe community so students can focus on their academics and be successful."

The events scheduled for this week feature speakers who are able to strike a comfortable tone to get into some intimate issues and leave room for questions from students, he said.

"People who use a bit of humour to talk through these issues, so it actually fits within the week and it isn't kind of jarring," he said. 

Is your partner 'enthusiastically saying yes'?

Teaching principles of healthy relationships is not a new thing for the campus, but this year adds emphasis to the idea of emphatic consent in sexual experience — making sure a partner is "enthusiastically saying yes," Ross said. 

It hopes to bring everyone onto the same page, especially among 18-year-olds arriving for an adult, campus experience for the first time.

"In my mind at least, it's a no-brainer to focus on this type of thing," Van Koughnett said. "From what I can see there's a level of interest there from students. Students want to know how they can talk about it with their peers."

Ross, who previously worked for the Sexual Assault Centre of Hamilton and Area, said the campus has made a big leap forward by formally focusing on sexual violence and consent, training student leaders on how to support survivors, and ensuring there's someone in her position to coordinate the university's approach to sexual violence.

"There's a marked difference between last year's welcome week and this year's welcome week," she said.

Next, Ross hopes to get the word out to all professors, teacher's assistants and staff about the university's formal sexual violence protocol, and how to connect survivors with resources when they share stories of sexual abuse.