At the College of William & Mary, freshman orientation is a celebratory experience. Before classes begin, freshmen spend three or four days bonding with others in their residence halls, hearing from speakers, and taking part in training sessions on topics like diversity and sexual consent. The program is led by upperclassmen with the coveted position of Orientation Aide, who are chosen mainly to represent the spectrum of race, sexual orientation, and club involvement at William & Mary.

I experienced freshman orientation in August of 2018. As students in my freshman hall were introduced to one another, we were told by our orientation aides to share our preferred pronouns. As someone who believes there are two genders with only two valid sets of self-evident pronouns, I awkwardly left pronouns out of my own introduction. This was the first taste of the difficulty I would have navigating an orientation that clearly aimed at indoctrination—and a foretaste of the remainder of my college career.

In between cheers, chants, and welcoming speeches that I hardly remember, my freshman class heard presentations on difficult topics, followed by an opportunity to discuss among hall residents. These conversations were facilitated by our four orientation aides. The first topic I remember discussing was sexual consent. Rather than respect for human dignity and rejection of objectification, the point pushed by our speaker and our orientation aides was that any sex between consenting adults is valid and good. They taught that consent should be clear and vocal and that it can be revoked at any time, but as long as it falls under those rules, sex is a fun and routine part of the college experience. No space was created for disagreement over the appropriate context for sex. Many parts of this session left me feeling uncomfortable, as if my choice not to have casual sex in college was weird, and as if I was the only student who would make this choice.

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