Three days following the talk by Tarana Burke, the founder of the MeToo movement, students and faculty debriefed together over dinner in the ELC Center Room on Feb. 21. Various discussion prompts related to hook up culture and sexual assault were led by Bucknell Student Government (BSG) Diversity Chair Shirah Moffatt-Darko ’18.

Dinner tables of eight discussed various questions, prompts, and pieces of writing that addressed the complexities of verbalizing consent. Printouts of the poem book, “The Sun and Her Flowers” by Rupi Kaur were at each table to be discussed.

“BSG Diversity committee thought it was important to debrief the talk so that we could formulate tangible examples of what interrogating a toxic sex culture looks like,” Moffatt-Darko said. “At the end of the day, people need to question how we are complicit in this culture; how we are more than isolated coincidences but rather a culture that we can choose to condone or admonish.”

Examples of questions discussed between peers and faculty included: “How can we change the current climate of our friend groups/campus organizations?” and “What is the current norm in your friend groups/campus organizations surrounding consent and speaking against sexual violence?”

Carina Calderón ’20 said her table discussed “keeping our communities accountable to create a dialogue about sex that turns into institutional change.”

Speak UP Bucknell peer, Megan Ganning ’18 addressed changes she believes need to happen on campus to prevent sexual assault. “We need to protect our friends who may be going into a dangerous situation. For example, if you see a friend leaving a party with someone you’ve heard a story about and you know there’s a possibility that they’ve hurt or violated someone, stop your friend and tell them why,” Ganning said.