A new workshop is being proposed for first year students in Trinity College, which will deal with the issue of sexual consent. Aimed at reducing the incidence of non-consensual sexual events, it is an initiative of the Student's Union in the college.
"We are hoping to introduce workshops based around exploring consent," Conor Clancy, Welfare Officer at TCD Students Union, told Hot Press, "including the myths around consent. We want to promote a positive and affirmative consent culture."
The initiative is a direct outcome of the 'non-consensual experience' study, which TCDSU conducted in January 2015. On the face of it, the study revealed disturbing details about sexual harassment among students. 25 per cent of female students and 5 per cent of male students stated that they had been subjected to an unwanted sexual experience. Meanwhile, 31 per cent of female, and 8 per cent of male, respondents said that they had experienced "unwanted physical contact", either studying in TCD, or in a college-related social setting.
The programme will be implemented on a trial basis for a thousand first year students, living in accommodation at Trinity Hall in Rathmines. To ensure its authenticity, the Union plans to work with the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. "We hope to get them involved with the workshops, in terms of compiling and facilitating them," Louise Mulrennan, Gender Equality Officer with TCD Students Union explained.
The model for the workshops is based on an Oxford University initiative, which saw consent classes being introduced a year ago. Conor was quick to dismiss the suggestion that the classes would 'point the finger' at men or accuse young men of being rapists.
"It is actually about discussing consent as a wider community," he said, "and bringing that issue to the table, in an effort to reduce the statistics we are seeing. What the survey points out, is there is a lack of understanding around consent. In no way is this a platform to say that young men are the perpetrators or that this is a 'women's only' issue."
While the statistics suggest that women suffer the brunt of the problem, Conor points out that the workshops are not just about relationships between women and men. "To say that betrays the idea of accepting LGBT relationships equally," he said. "It doesn't look at people with non-binary genders who could benefit from having a discussion around consent. Really, we are looking to keep it as broad as possible. It's going to be gender neutral in its focus."
There have been complaints about the proposed workshops, among them the suggestion that classes like this risk demonising men. However, with a persistent problem on campus, which is mirrored across Irish universities, the TCDSU is trying to take positive steps. Ultimately, the organisers say, the priority is to enable students to feel safe on their own campus.