Dear Colleagues,

Firstly allow me to introduce myself, my name is Ben Dunlea and I am the Students' Union President for the academic year 2019/20. UCC Students' Union and University College Cork have a long and illustrious history of collaboration and it is very much the intention of this incoming Executive Team to continue this tradition of cooperation. I am thrilled that my first email to you can be one to promote a fantastic event that UCC Students' Union, UCC and the Cork Sexual Violence Centre are collaborating on.

UCC, through the efforts of UCCSU and the support of the College, will become one of the first Third Level Institutions worldwide to make Consent the opening and focal point of their Freshers Week by hosting a Consent Tea Party on Monday at 1:00pm in the Presidents Garden to launch a new campaign we have been working on, #AskConsent.

The event is based around the well-known video with the simple message: it is completely ludicrous to force people to have tea when they don’t want tea, and if you’re able to understand when people don’t want tea, then how hard is it to understand, when it comes to sex? When it comes to tea and sex, consent is everything.

The event will be attended by the Lord Mayor, the Chief Superintendent and the Head of Cork Sexual Violence Centre Mary Crilly. All are welcome to attend and we would love to see the support of UCC staff for this vital campaign.