The Health Education Resource Center will be holding programs to define consent to students at the end of February and throughout the month of March.

The Counseling Center also partnered with the HERC to help offer this information students.

The program, called “What Is Consent”, breaks down the definition of consent into its simplest form for students to better understand the word and is based on the school’s student conduct codes.

While explaining what the word means there will be interactive discussions on how to get consent, situations where consent is difficult to get and different analogies on how to deal with these things.

These sessions happen every semester and are open to all students but other organizations have requested that the sexual health educator make a presentation on consent for their group. These groups include Registered Student Organizations, Greek Life, athletics and residence halls.

This will be the second scheduled presentation of the spring semester, with the first one being held back in January. The rest of the presentation will be spread out throughout the rest of the semester, including one presentation in February, three presentations in March and one last presentation in April. The sessions scheduled for Feb. 16, March 8, and April 12 will be at 5 p.m. and the remaining presentations on March 2 and March 28 will be at 7 p.m.

Melany Zwilling, the sexual health promotion coordinator, said while students might have their own definition of what consent is, the HERC wants students to know Eastern’s and Illinois’ definitions and regulations.

“Most students have never been taught a concept in-depth such as consent,” Zwilling said.

The program is also in partnership with the It’s On Us Campaign, where students can protest sexual assault on their college campuses.

“EIU is a communiversity in which all students, faculty and staff should look out for one another and respect those in which we spend most of our time with throughout the year,” Zwilling said. “Respecting individuals reinforces how important being an active bystander is for our campus.”

Each program will be held in the Martinsville Room in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. Students calling also look up more information about the different session by visiting the HERC’s website.

Abbey Whittington can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]