Every year, incoming Penn first years are required to complete online training and attend student-led discussions on sexual consent and campus safety. While these programs provide an educational starting point, students and facilitators say there is more the University could do to keep students informed about Title IX and campus sexual assault policies.
During New Student Orientation, trained student facilitators lead hour-long Consent Circles on interpersonal violence and campus support resources. Prior to the in-person program, students are required to complete Thrive at Penn — a set of online Canvas modules that outline the University’s Title IX policies.
For College sophomore Cyrus Nininger, who served as a Consent Circle student facilitator this August, the program is a “solid starting ground” for establishing a shared understanding of consent among first-year students.
The program’s curriculum is adapted each year based on feedback, Nininger said, adding he hopes it continues to get “better and better year by year.” Facilitators, he explained, hosted a “debrief session” to discuss aspects of the program that could be adapted for future students.
“Education is really important because it takes out people that would be accidental perpetrators,” Nininger said in an interview. “But there are people who aren’t listening. There are people who are not accidental perpetrators, and there are people who genuinely don’t care that much about other people.”
“Consent Circles give all incoming Penn students a student-led conversational opportunity to explore concepts related to consent and resources for support with their peers prior to beginning their academic year,” Penn Violence Prevention Director Elise Scioscia wrote in a statement.
Scioscia directed The Daily Pennsylvanian to Penn’s Center for Civil Rights for additional information.
According to a University spokesperson, PVP led more than 120 Consent Circles for over 2,400 incoming students this August.
Nininger said the sessions were most helpful to incoming students who have received limited or abstinence-only education on sexual violence prevention in the past. However, there is still room for improvement, he said.
“Later on in their college journey, a lot of students don’t revisit these conversations,” he added. “A lot of students have completely forgotten about their Consent Circle — what that looked like, what that room was, and the education that they got there. So I think that at some point, revisiting conversations with Penn students would be super helpful.”
At a Wednesday University Council meeting, Penn President Larry Jameson pledged to increase education and awareness efforts on sexual violence prevention and expand the University’s Title IX capacity.
During his opening remarks, Jameson alluded to a civil lawsuit filed last month by a former Cornell University student alleging she was drugged and sexually assaulted by seven members of Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity in October 2024. The university’s response has drawn widespread criticism and accusation that campus administrators mishandled the case.
After participating in the hour-long Consent Circle, College first year Sarah Pan said she still feels “very nebulous” about the process of reporting a sexual assault incident at Penn.
Each session begins with introductions and a review of discussion guidelines. Facilitators then explain the F.R.I.E.S. acronym, which defines consent as freely given, reversible, informed, enthusiastic, and specific. Students discuss four questions involving hypothetical scenarios, and the programming concludes with information about Penn’s confidential support and reporting resources.
“If you were to quiz me right now, I would not be able to name the exact procedure in which someone is able to get help, what even happens, and what my rights are,” Pan said.
According to a University spokesperson, 91% of students who completed participant evaluations indicated that after attending Consent Circles, they knew where to seek support at Penn related to sexual assault.
While College first year Long Jiang thought a peer-led format was more effective than a staff-directed alternative, he said the vast majority of participants appeared “tapped out.”
The programming, he said, should focus on the “culture that allows for violations of consent,” rather than “teaching us what we already know.”
“I don’t think these Consent Circles alone can actually bring about change in terms of the prevention aspect,” Pan added, stressing the need for administrators to communicate the consequences of sexual misconduct and enforce disciplinary measures.
Pan said she felt the Canvas modules — which first years finish before arriving on campus — were simply “another mandatory thing” she had to complete.
“I feel like most freshmen, when they’re going through the NSO modules, they’re just skimming through it,” she said.
College first-year Adrian Piwowarczyk, on the other hand, found the modules to be a helpful way to introduce students to Title IX and the support resources available on campus. Piwowarczyk also lauded the Consent Circles format, saying he felt students were encouraged to participate without being forced to speak if they felt uncomfortable.
While he didn’t think that the training necessarily “rewired anyone’s brain and completely flipped their thinking of consent,” Piwowarczyk said he appreciated that the Consent Circles programming encouraged students to think about consent beyond sexual relationships.
“I definitely felt more equipped, and I didn’t feel that it was just a formality,” he said. “If it didn’t add to somebody’s knowledge, it definitely didn’t subtract.”
College sophomore Emylee Perkins — another student facilitator — said she was trained to respond calmly to potentially harmful comments or “victim-blaming” during her sessions by asking students to explain their reasoning rather than immediately correcting them.
Perkins said that her students were “optimistic to share,” and that the information was likely more comfortable to “hear from another student than to have administrators talking at you.”
PVP was “very intentional” about recruiting a diverse array of facilitators, according to student facilitator and College sophomore Tyrus Roney.
“I’m a big dude, so consent talk coming out of me is very novel,” he said. “I think it’s helpful because it exposes a lot of the Penn students to the different types of people that we have here on campus.”
Senior reporter Amy Liao covers student life and can be reached at liao@thedp.com. At Penn, she studies philosophy, politics, and economics and cinema and media studies. Follow her on X @amyliiao.
