By | Lauren Shea
Brave students walked up to the podium to share their story in front of supporters of a culture of consent.
HSU students attended The Consent Project 2017 in the Kate Buchanan Room on Oct. 10 to talk about consent and listen to survivors of sexual violence.
The Consent Project is an event held through the Check It program to talk about what it means to consent, what consent looks like, and how to communicate consent though choices and actions. The project aims to create a culture of consent and reduce the harm caused by sexual violence. The event provided a place to educate students and the community about consent and provide community resources. It also provided a place where survivors of all genders of sexual violence could speak out about their story. 
This year’s theme is the Seasons of Change. One of the event coordinators, Skye Peredo, talked about the meaning behind the name by describing how seasons change just as people do.
The event provided many resources such as the North Coast Rape Crisis Team, Check It, the Women’s Resource Center and the Multicultural Queer Resource Center. The event provided food and drinks as students engaged in conversations about consent and the importance of self-care. Arts and crafts were supplied for students to create crafts and build a comfortable and creative environment.
The second part of the night shared a space where survivors talked about their story on consent. Survivors shared their gratitude for programs such as Check It and The Consent Project that encourages a consent culture where people can talk about sexual violence. It also encourages people to support each other and educate people in hopes to reduce to harm caused by sexual violence and the lack of clear consent communication.
Students talked about consent culture during the event and the importance of caring for yourself. Elissa Rodriguez, a junior at HSU studying English, gave her thoughts about the importance of self-care and mental stress breaks.
“I advocate a lot to my friends about self-care,” Rodriguez said. “I think we go through so much stress and taking the time even if it’s just a little bit of time to recuperate before getting back to what you need to do is really important.”
She also talked about her experience with the consent culture being built at HSU.
“I feel like there is always more room for improvement,” Rodrigues said. I feel like people are still afraid to talk about sexual violence because if they weren’t, we wouldn’t need events like this. Not everyone is involved as they should be.”
Alex Heart, a sophomore at HSU studying Geology, talked about the influence that Check it and the Consent Project has on new students.
“I think the school does really well on educating freshman that come from all walks of life about consent,” Heart said.
Jonathan Salinas, a senior at HSU studying Spanish, talked about his experience with consent culture at HSU.
“I definitely think there is a lot of work to be done about creating a consent culture here,” Salinas said. “But I think events like this gives students on campus the vocabulary to have the conversations. I think there is that fear to talk about these topics, but at the same time empowers people to have these discussions.”
