Colby Lifestyle

Let’s Talk About Booze Part 2.

Some information about Colby’s (relatively) new Party With Consent movement landed in our Inbox, and I thought it fit well under the category of “booze” in it’s pertinence to weekend social behavior.

This past fall there was an incident at Colby involving sexual misconduct that we didn’t really cover at the time (aside from a brief mention in our Year in Review). The allegations of sexual assault did much more than spark FanBusGate, it resulted in charges against 15 students and a surge of dialogue about sexual conduct.

Each campus in the ‘Cac has groups that routinely sponsor dialogue about sexual respect and consent. It goes without saying that these conversations are more than just important, they are essential to the maintenance of a healthy campus atmosphere.

In my opinion, the approach towards promoting good sexual conduct ought to be refreshed from time to time, or these dialogues begin to be tuned out—obviously a dangerous prospect.

Colby students may be weary of hearing about the issue, but I am a fan of the initiative Party With Consent, which comes hot on the heels of sex-positivity ventures like bringing porn star Bobbi Starr to campus. The reasoning behind PWC is that students are tired of being told what they can’t do, and are looking for the three types of consent to be addressed from a more positive angle.

These three types of consent being:

Sexual: The standards laid out in Colby College Sexual Assault Handbook

Social: The respect between individuals engaged in sex acts, and the respect of those who have knowledge of it

Internal:A self-analysis of social pressures and one’s relationship to them

PWC’s constitution reads, “While our mission emphasizes respect and responsibility, our goals is not to limit the amount of partying or the degree of partying, but rather to increase amounts of consensual partying on campus.”

PWC is on FB, Twitter, and the front of a shirt near you.

 

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