The Student Union ‘Crafternoon’ in review

Last week was Consent Week and the University of Sussex and the Student’s Union have been working together  to continue to help raise awareness about consent. The University and SU have organised multiple events to help address the issue of consent and sexual harassment such as a talk about sexual violence at universities,Open Minds open mic night, and a screening of an eye-opening film relating to the topic of consent.

The Students Union also organised a ‘Crafternoon’; where anyone is free to show up and get involved in decorating their own T-shirts with whatever slogans and words they like, whilst sitting in a calm and comfortable environment. I went to the event to join in and speak to some of the people there to dig into some of the deeper issues as to what brought people to the event.

Jordan and Malak designing their T-shirts

Jordan, Computer Science Exchange Student:

“I think that art is a great way to express how you feel about anything [she says as she aggressively struggles with using the squirty glitter on her t shirt]. I mainly came for the craft”

Malak, Foundation Year Psychology Student:

” I’m Egyptian… so this is not a common thing that people talk about there. They just sort of swept it under the rug, so I wanted to see what was going on here.”

Frida, Women Students’ Officer at the University of Sussex Students Union

“It’s for consent week, of course, and I wanted to do something that wasn’t dense or too thoughtful and I wanted to do something nice for people to get involved with. I wanted something to empower people and for them to get to feel more empowered and excited about consent, in a calm way.”

Ruby, English Literature Student:

“I find consent is a very close issue to my heart and it’s nice to sit in a room with people who feel the same way. It’s therapeutic and it’s something you don’t get to do much as a student.”

After a calm (and slightly liberating) afternoon in Room 76, it was nice to see that the university is organising these kinds of events, especially for a topic that is maybe not looked at or discussed enough. It felt like a great way to more subtly tackle and raise awareness about consent. Plus we all got a free t-shirt – even if it is smeared in glitter and dodgy handwriting.