The policy change, sometimes known as the “yes means yes” rule, has been sweeping college campuses across the country since California passed the first such law last year.

The U’s new rule, which is poised to take effect this month after a 30-day comment period, says that sex is OK only if both parties express consent through “clear and unambiguous words or actions.” Absent that, it would fit the U’s ­definition of sexual assault.

So far, the plan has prompted little dissent at the U. But nationally, critics have derided such policies as absurd and dangerous, particularly when it comes to protecting the rights of the accused.

“Once that accusation has been made, it’s somehow up to the accused person to prove they did have consent,” said Robert Shibley, executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a civil liberties group in Philadelphia. “What that means is that they’re guilty until proven innocent.”

The campaign for affirmative consent rules has been fueled by a tidal wave of outrage about campus rape, and concern that college officials haven’t done enough to crack down on sexual assault.

“It’s spreading pretty fast,” said Alison Berke Morano, a Florida political strategist who helped launch the “Affirmative Consent Project” in February. “It’s been faster than I’ve seen other movements.”

Just a year ago, ­California passed the first such law, requiring colleges to adopt the new language.

Since then, lawmakers in more than a dozen states, including Minnesota, have introduced similar legislation (the Minnesota bill failed to make it into law this spring).

Meanwhile, many colleges and universities have been changing the language voluntarily.

At the same time, Morano’s organization has started distributing “consent contracts” that students can sign, partly as a tactic to get the conversation started.

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