You’ve seen "bae" everywhere. "Bae, come over" on Twitter, "quality time with bae" on Instagram, "You’re my bae" says someone you don’t really know IRL. If a word is said enough by "the youth", soon enough companies and ad campaigns will come crawling.

Now it’s not just massive corporations and your great-aunt saying bae. It’s your school. Columbia University – the school attended by Emma Sulkowicz, the girl who carried her mattress in protest at an alleged sexual assault on campus – has launched a sexual consent awareness campaign. Good. But the campaign poster reads "Consent is BAE (Before Anything Else)". Maybe not so good?

The campaign is Columbia's effort to instigate change after accusations of failing to deal with sexual assault on campus. 

And students aren't that happy about it, for a number of reasons. One emailed Jezebel telling them, “In my opinion, and in the opinion of many other student activists I know on campus, this poster both trivialises consent and appropriates African American Vernacular English.” The word "bae" has been used for years in African American culture before being adopted into the white mainstream.

The following response was given to Columbia Student News from the school:

"Sexual Violence Response (SVR) seeks to promote healthy sexuality and positive behaviours. Historically, SVR has approached its consent education campaign from a constructive, encouraging, and fun perspective. This is also consistent with the tone at the national level, most recently with the affirmative consent legislation.

"The Consent is BAE poster was developed in conjunction with SVR student staff and was specifically created to speak to students in a more conversational tone, rather than a lecture. It was designed to engage students on the topic of consent and drive to SVR social media channels to learn more. It’s the first in a series of educational communications that will be used this year. We hope students will continue to think, learn and participate in discourse about this topic beyond this one message."

It looks like this is a standard case of trying to be down with the kids gone wrong.