Now that California has passed the "Yes Means Yes" bill, students at Harvard University want a similar policy for sexual consent at their school.
According to the Huffington Post, three student groups crafted a petition seeking to get the Ivy League institution to adopt such a policy. Passed two weeks ago, Calif.'s bill requires its college students to get affirmative consent when engaging in sexual activity, rather than not receiving an explicit "no."
Our Harvard Can Do Better, Graduate Students Advocating for Gender Equality and Harvard Students Demand Respect created the petition to get Harvard to establish a "baseline for confirming that a sexual partner wants to be in that situation at that time."
Under the Calif. bill, the Associated Press reported, two students must both indicate consent for sexual activity, though the affirmation can be nonverbal. It also states that consent cannot be given if one of the participants is inebriated, on drugs, asleep or unconscious.
While other schools have sexual assault policies similar to the Yes Means Yes bill, Calif. was the first state to pass such legislation. Since, states like New York and New Hampshire are considering similar bills.
"Harvard has taken a number of steps to foster prevention efforts and to support students who have experienced sexual misconduct," Jeff Neal, a Harvard spokesperson told the HP.
Harvard introduced its new sexual assault policy in July, the Crimson then reported, though it left out an affirmative consent clause requested from student advocates. Mia Karvonides, Harvard's Title IX officer, told the newspaper that decision was intentional as there is no "standard definition" of consent.
That was not the opinion of the lawmakers who approved the Yes Means Yes bill and, according to a new HP/YouGov poll, the American people as well. The poll results showed that a majority of Americans agree with the bill and a majority also believes there is a campus sexual assault problem.
