Here’s what Cambridge students think of their sexual consent classes
Women’s officer posts picture of empty hall as freshers boycott ‘patronising’ talks
THEY are the university workshops designed to inform new students about sexual consent in an effort to tackle the rising number of assaults on campus.
But in a sign of a growing backlash against such events, not a single fresher attended an hour-long session at a top Cambridge college.
The angry women’s officer at Clare College later posted pictures of the empty auditorium on social media and lambasting freshers for snubbing the event. She described the move as a ‘huge step backwards’.
In a post to accompany the picture of the empty venue, she complained: ‘This is the number of Clare College freshers who thought it worth their time to show up to the consent workshops this morning, who thought that an hour out of their morning in Freshers’ Week was too much to ask.’ The post was later deleted. Earlier this month, students at York University staged a walkout in protest against consent classes. Every first-year student was expected to attend the sessions, although officials insisted that they were not compulsory.
Last night Sir Anthony Seldon, the vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham, said he was heartened by the student boycott. ‘Universities are about the teaching of independent mindedness, and students should not be going along with what the NUS or anyone else is telling them,’ he said.
The row at Clare College emerged after its women’s officer – understood to be second-year history undergraduate Rosie Boxall – posted the pictures of the empty lecture hall on Tuesday on social media. Miss Boxall said Clare, whose alumni include Sir David Attenborough, had been at the forefront of tackling consent issues.
She said: ‘Clare has been leading the colleges in taking a proactive approach to dealing with sexual assault i n Cambridge and to cement active, enthusiastic and informed consent as the norm in our student body. This feels like a huge step backwards.’
Union of Clare Students president Laura Minoli insisted there had been a ‘miscommunication’. But Miss Boxall denied that in a Facebook message, which has now been deleted. She wrote: ‘Students were told Sunday, emailed last night and told again this morning, so it wasn’t a miscommunication about timings.’
A Cambridge spokesman said: ‘The consent classes are a key part of our students’ introduction to university life. They are included in induction programmes, and students are strongly encouraged to attend.’
Speaking to student newspaper Varsity, Cambridge University Students’ Union women’s officer Audrey Sebatindira also expressed her disappointment.
She said: ‘In the 2014 Cambridge Speaks Out survey, 77 per cent of respondents had experienced sexual harassment while at Cambridge.
‘Given how pervasive the problem is, there’s no doubt that the consent workshops are necessary and more people should appreciate that.’
The National Union of Students claims that one in five students experiences some sort of sexual harassment during their first week of term.
Sexual comments, wolf-whistling when students walk into lectures, heckling i n nightclub queues, and jokes about rape were all cited as examples.
First-year students attending York’s first ever sexual consent classes protested that they were being ‘patronised’.
But student union leaders said that the ‘gender-neutral’ lessons were necessary to protect the ‘wellbeing of freshers’.
Some students took to social media to comment on the row, with one complaining the session had not been listed on the official freshers’ timetable. There were also claims that such talks are ‘usually very long and dry’.
The latest twist follows claims in a national newspaper that sexual harassment and assault on Britain’s campuses remains hidden. The Guardian interviewed 100 women, who said many incidents go unreported, and the issue was compared to the Jimmy Savile scandal.
Sexual consent classes are even more widespread in the United States. Next year California will become the first state to make it mandatory for high schools to teach students about ‘affirmative consent’.