Problem

Sexual violence is more prevalent at U.S. college campuses compared to other crimes.

• 11.2% of all students experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation.
• 23.1% of female undergraduate students and 5.4% of male undergraduate students experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation.

UCSB's Sexual Violence Prevention and Response policy expects everyone to take university education and training courses on sexual violence prevention, but more can be implemented to increase consent education on campus.

Currently, students are required to receive sexual violence prevention and intervention training and education "regularly", but for most students this is only one consent education program freshman year. For students in fraternities and sororities, they are required to attend one consent education program per year, but even this is not enough to make a prevalent change in reducing sexual violence at UCSB. 

Teaching sexual consent to students only once a year, or even less for most students, is not enough to protect victims who are incapacitated for reasons such as alcohol and drugs at parties. 

Solution

By changing the way UCSB teaches consent, we will be able to prevent sexual violence within students and protect survivors of sexual violence. 

UC Berkeley teaches sexual consent not just once a year, but before every major party, such as Cal Day. Fraternity members are required to give a consent talk to all students before entering their party. This consent talk not only includes sexual consent, but also alcohol and drug use safety. By educating students regularly, schools such as UC Berkeley are able to promote a safe party culture.

This petition calls for UCSB to implement the same consent talks fraternities at UC Berkeley are required to give, in order to prevent sexual violence and promote safe partying. Major events such as Deltopia need consent talks to make Isla Vista a safe place for students to have fun. 

My goal is that through this petition I am able to increase sexual consent education at UCSB, making the campus and Isla Vista a safer place for students.