Harper College offices are currently closed for an all-campus meeting. Offices will reopen shortly after noon to serve students.
Consent is defined as permission to act. It may be given by words or actions, so long as those words or actions create clear, mutually understood permission to engage in (and the conditions of) sexual activity. Consent may be withdrawn at any time. Consent must meet all of the following standards:
– A person under the legal age to consent (17 years old in Illinois), or
– An individual who is known to be (or based on the circumstances should reasonably –be known to be) mentally or physically incapacitated. An incapacitated individual is someone who cannot make rational, reasonable decisions because he or she lacks the capacity to understand the “who, what, when, where, why, or how” of a sexual interaction. This includes a person whose incapacity results from mental disability, sleep, involuntary physical restraint, unconsciousness, use of alcohol or other drugs.
(This information and the campus policy is adapted from the ATIXA Gender-Based and Sexual Misconduct Policy by the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management (NCHERM) and the Association of Title IX Administrators (ATIXA), 2011).