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Some Columbia students criticize ‘CONSENT IS BAE’ sexual awareness posters

Some students at Columbia University are criticizing a new sexual consent poster titled “CONSENT IS BAE” that will be shown to first-year students. 

A tipster who sent an image of the poster to a student blog and feminist blog Jezebel said “this poster both trivializes and appropriates African-American Vernacular English.” 

The poster includes the Twitter-friendly hashtag #BeforeAnythingElse and the message “sexual consent is a voluntary active agreement.” 

The poster was produced by the university’s Sexual Violence Response Campaign, which sent a statement to BWOG, a Columbia student news blog, saying that the poster “was specifically created to speak to students in a more conversational tone, rather than a lecture.” 

The university didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from amNewYork. 

The school has been working to educate its students on the need for sexual consent.  

Beginning in September 2014, arts student Emma Sulkowicz, who said she had been raped by a fellow classmate, carried around a college dorm twin mattress with her, vowing not to put it down until the man she accused left Columbia. She even carried it across the stage at graduation this past May. The university found the man she accused “not responsible” in light of Sulkowicz’s allegations.