app could connect you to people that give themselves to be allies. You
have a support system.
SNM: Can you explain what you mean by consent? Give us a brief
definition.
CD: Consent must always be verbal. The person must be sober and
within their right mind. It’s permission for something to happen or an
agreement to do something. So, there must be a verbal yes.
If you're drunk and you know you are having those types of feelings
and there's no verbal yes, then there's no consent given. First, there's
no verbal yes and second, you're drunk you're not in your right mind.
You're not sober and you cannot make the right decisions for yourself
at that time.
SNM: Is this based on a legal definition of consent?
CD: This is based on the definition within the dictionary and some
of the information I have learned while I was at the University of
Michigan. So, they defined it as a verbal yes. You must be in your right
mind. Legally, it's just something your agreement to do. You give
permission for something to happen.
SNM: How does your app work in terms of connecting people to be a
support system?
CD: The app has an ally page. Within the app students can deem
themselves as an ally. They will be educated on what an ally is and how
to be a good ally. They can deem themselves as an ally and they can
deem their place of residence as a safe space.
So, for example you're going out on a date. You don't really know the
person and you have all these allies in the app. You can choose to let
everyone know that you left your house and where you're going out.
Or, you can choose one person to say, “Hey I left my house and I'm
going on a date. This is where I’m going.”
If the date doesn't go very well you can go back to that ally page and
see which one of your allies is home. If they are deemed as a safe
space, then you can say, “Hey, come get me or I'm coming by your
place I don't feel safe. I just need to stay with you for a while.” You have
that sense of a support system whether it's your immediate friends or
people you may know on campus but are just in your class.
SHM: Lastly how did you get around the right people to create your
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