Students across college campuses will need to receive verbal or non-verbal consent before engaging in sexual activity, according to a new law enacted in the State of California.

The ‘Yes means Yes’ bill, signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown on Sept. 29, defines a new standard for sexual consent in sexual assault cases across college campuses. All campuses that receive state funding will be affected and that includes Moorpark College.

“We take all allegations of rape and sexual assault seriously and investigate these allegations thoroughly and completely,” said VCCCD Chief of Police Joel Justice.

Thus the main changes for the district with regard to the new legislation will have to do with reporting and education rather than a complete change in their position toward sexual assault cases, according to Justice.

The previous standard was ‘No means No’ in which the victims had to explicitly object to engaging in sexual activity. As a result, cases in which the victim was intoxicated or unconscious were very difficult to prove and obtain convictions.

“In ‘Yes means Yes,’ there has to be an affirmation that sex is consensual but lack of resistance or objection cannot constitute consent. Additionally, this means that someone who is drunk, asleep, unconscious, or drugged cannot consent,” said Justice.

Moorpark College Sociology Professor Cynthia Barnett praised the fact that the new standard places an emphasis on saying yes rather than on resistance.

“Yes means yes is affirmative: ‘Yes I am willing to engage in intimacy with a partner,'” Barnett said. “It’s more active as opposed to passive way to show their willingness to engage in sexual activity.”

Some students at Moorpark College have also embraced this new emphasis on active affirmation.

“The person needs to give you some form of approval before you get into that action,” Music Therapy Major Thomas Kocsis said. “You need to know 100 percent that the person is invested in the idea.”

Moorpark College student Maia DeVillers expressed her agreement with the standard in regard to the mental capacity of an individual.

“Having to prove that you said no is difficult,” 23-year-old theater major DeVillers said. “A lot of people use the excuse, ‘she was drunk,’ or ‘she didn’t say no’. When someone is intoxicated like that, they cannot physically give consent. There is a fine line there that people need to see.”

According to Justice, the education and awareness mandates of the new bill will be incorporated into a pre-existing structure for dealing with issues that range from sexual assault to domestic violence.

“The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (SaVE) mandate college campuses to provide programs for students and employees to address the issues of not only ‘Yes means yes’, but issues related to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking,” Justice said in an email.

While the bill clarifies what consent is, Cynthia Barnett said it will lie with the individual campuses to put in place programs that facilitate an environment where issues of sexual consent can be openly addressed.

“I think it’s going to be on the college campuses to create a climate where people can talk about it,” Barnett said. “It’s that kind of effort that is going to make people feel more comfortable on campuses.”

Chief Justice said that the district plans to include prevention and awareness programs for all incoming students and employees, safe and positive options for by-stander intervention, and awareness programs for students and faculty.

DeVillers hopes that the new standard will help create an environment where victims can come forward.

“We don’t hear about a lot of these cases of assault or rape because people don’t come forward with it,” Devillers said. “Maybe the law will make people more comfortable to come out about that.”

Regardless of the obstacles faced in bringing these issues forward, 19-year-old Music Major Emily Reynolds said this is a positive step forward.

“It’s training a new generation of men to understand what consent is and that they are in control of what they do and they need to be responsible,” Reynolds said.