A 2015 survey of twenty-seven elite colleges found that twenty-three percent of respondents reported personal experiences of sexual misconduct on their campuses. That figure has not changed since the 1980s, when people first began collecting data on sexual violence. What has changed is the level of attention that the American public is paying to these statistics. Reports of sexual abuse repeatedly make headlines, and universities are scrambling to address the crisis.
Their current strategy, Donna Freitas argues, is wholly inadequate. Universities must take a radically different approach to educating their campus communities about sexual assault and consent. Consent education is often a one-time affair, devised by overburdened student affairs officers. Universities seem more focused on insulating themselves from lawsuits and scandals than on bringing about real change. What is needed, Freitas shows, is an effort by the entire university community to deal with the deeper questions about sex, ethics, values, and how we treat one another, including facing up to the perils of hookup culture-and to do so in the university's most important space: the classroom. We need to offer more than a section in the student handbook about sexual assault, and expand our education around consent far beyond "Yes Means Yes." We need to transform our campuses into places where consent is genuinely valued.
Freitas advocates for teaching not just how to consent, but why it's important to care about consent and to treat one's sexual partners with dignity and respect. Consent on Campus is a call to action for university administrators, faculty, parents, and students themselves, urging them to create cultures of consent on their campuses, and offering a blueprint for how to do it.
Industry Reviews
"Donna Freitas' authoritative new book couldn't have arrived at a better time. With original research, compelling stories, and compassion for the entire college community, Freitas deftly deconstructs the thicket of issues that make the subject of consent so difficult to navigate. A ground-breaking examination of the crisis on our campuses, it offers thoughtful solutions-both ethical and practical-that can help restore meaning to the notion of consent. This book
is a clarion call, one that we must heed." --Patricia McCormick, author of the National Book Award finalists Sold and Never Fall Down
"This manifesto challenges and empowers universities to live up to their ideals by applying intellectual rigor toward eliminating sexual violence on our campuses. Through thought-provoking questions and narratives, Donna Freitas reminds us-faculty, staff, students, administrators, trustees-of both our power and our responsibility to create a future of hope and a culture of dignity, justice, and consent in our communities." --Dr. Judi Biggs Garbuio, Vice
President for Student Development; Michelle Wheatley, Assistant Vice President for Mission and Ministry; Jill Yashinsky-Wortman, Director of the Center for Cura Personalis, Gonzaga University
"Freitas's book is both informative and timely, addressing recent developments and setbacks in the consent movement. It digs for the roots of the problem, examining how colleges got to this place, from where trauma is frequent and inflicted without repercussions. Freitas interrogates mainstream ideas about consent, sex, and gender,
forcing the reader to reevaluate their own preconceived notions and biases, with the last third of her book devoted to practical solutions for colleges to implement. The result is a well-researched, accessible book that lays bare the disturbing realities that many students face every day."- Foreword Reviews
"Donna Freitas' timely book struck a deep chord... While the book suggests specific
strategies for dealing with issues of consent on campus, the power of this work dwells in creating more space for the questions that might, one hopes, lead to a better sexual culture on campus."- Women's Review of Books
