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GU I D E to Y E L L OW S P R I NG S | 2O22 – 2O23 23 Affirmative Consent is defined as the act of willingly and verbally agreeing to engage in specific sexual conduct. The following are clarifying points: Affirmative Consent must be obtained each and every time there is sexual activity. Affirmative consent: under- standing of the sexual activity: The person who initiates sexual conduct is responsible for verbally asking for the affir- mative consent of individual(s) involved. The person with whom sexual conduct is initiated must verbally express affirmative consent or lack of “consent.” Each new level of sexual activity requires affirmative consent. Use of agreed upon forms of communication such as ges- tures or safe words is accept- able but must be discussed and verbally agreed to by all parties before sexual activity occurs. Affirmative Consent is required regardless of the par- ties’ relationship, prior sexual history, or current activity (e.g. grinding on the dance floor is not consent for further sexual activity). In order for affirmative con- sent to be valid, all parties must have unimpaired judgment and a shared understanding of the nature of the act to which they are consenting, including the use of safer sex practices. A person cannot give affir- mative consent while sleeping. Silence conveys a lack of affirmative consent. At any and all times when affirmative consent is with- drawn or not explicitly agreed to, the sexual activity must stop immediately. All parties must disclose personal risk factors and known STIs. after the college adopted the policy. The media presence on campus was so great in the fall of 1993 that college administration established new, much stricter guidelines for visiting journalists. Ellen Goodman wrote a column in favor of verbal con- sent. Diana Trilling published a column in Newsweek referring to “the death-dealing spirit which animates the sexual manual which was recently drafted by the students of Antioch College.” The New York Times carried a front- page story on the policy in September 1993 that included comments from students both for and against the policy. It was also famously lampooned in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, in which cast mem - bers played Antioch students participating in a game show called “Is It Date Rape?” In a 1994 booklet on the national reaction to the policy, college President Alan Guskin said that the alumni’s reac - tion was mixed. Some saw the policy as going against the freedom that Antioch represented, but Guskin noted that he “also received many positive letters.” Guskin also said that the Sexual Offense Policy was “widely accepted at Antioch College” because, he believed, students were instrumental in creating the policy. In June 1996 the Board of Trustees approved the Antioch College Sexual Offense Prevention Policy, a new revision of the policy and the first to include the word “Prevention” in the title. The 1996 SOPP requires all students to sign a state- ment that they have read and understood the SOPP at the beginning of their first term at Antioch. This revision also changed the titles of the cat - egories of offenses under the SOPP in order to avoid confu - sion with the criminal code definitions of words such as “rape” and “sexual assault.” Now, the SOPP is generally accepted as part and parcel of the Antioch experience. And more than three decades after the adoption of the original policy, verbal, affirmative communication is now widely considered to be standard in any discussion around consent. This has been particu - larly true in the wake of the #MeToo movement, created by activist Tarana Burke in 2006 and popularized in 2017 after a viral social media post from actor Alyssa Milano. The movement galvanized women to speak out against sexual offenses. In a world where many now acknowledge that anything less than an enthusiastic “yes” is tantamount to a “no,” the efforts of the women of Antioch College now stand out as being ahead of their time. ♦ WHAT IS AFFIRMATIVE CONSENT? BENT I NO’S BE Pizza o f Y e l l o w S p r i n g s hand-toSSed & thin cruSt Pizza gyros • Calzones • Bread stiCks Pasta • Wings • Hoagies • salads 107½ Xenia Ave. 937-767-2500 See full menu or order online at www.bentinos.com/yellow-springs