HazingInfo.org Launches the Nation’s First Comprehensive Database of Hazing Incidents at Colleges & Universities

HazingInfo.org is the first comprehensive national database of college student hazing at colleges and universities, showcasing data on hazing incidents in college teams, clubs, and organizations. Currently, HazingInfo.org has free data and information posted for 467 institutions in the nine – soon to be ten – states that require colleges and universities to publish campus hazing incident reports. The nine states are Georgia, Louisiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, and Indiana will be the tenth. Often catalyzed by tragedy, hazing prevention advocates have worked to strengthen state anti-hazing laws across the nation.

Turning Tragedy Into Change – Launching HazingInfo.org

Jolayne Houtz, mother of Sam Martinez who was killed by hazing at Washington State University in 2019, was one of many who helped pass Sam’s Law in Washington, which requires public reporting of hazing incidents, among other requirements. Other families who have lost loved ones to hazing have worked to pass similar state laws elsewhere. The mission of HazingInfo.org is to provide free and accurate information on hazing incidents at US colleges and universities and help students and their families make informed decisions about what groups to join. HazingInfo.org was officially launched in 2024 as a partnership with StopHazing, the University of Washington Information School, and the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development. Houtz and her husband, Héctor Martinez, have made gifts to both institutions to support hazing prevention research and the technological development of the database. 

The process of developing HazingInfo.org has taken a couple of years and iterations since its inception in 2023 as a University of Washington Information School student capstone project and preliminary research project at StopHazing. From manually gathering information (e.g., hazing incident reports, campus policies, and reporting resources) to regularly updating the data as new reports are released, it has been a laborious undertaking. Many people have supported Houtz through this process, including partners from StopHazing, students and faculty at the University of Washington Information School, and consultants. 

What Have We Learned With HazingInfo.org Already?

While institutions in the nine states currently included on HazingInfo.org have laws requiring public reporting of hazing incidents, the team found that only a shocking 50% of these institutions are meeting their legal obligations to make the data available. Additionally, if a transparency report does exist, it may not be updated at the regular cadence the law calls for. Moreover, when reports do exist, there are no regulated methods or standards for how colleges or universities format the report or provide details about the hazing incidents. Given the variability of the information included by institutions and the amount of information accessible in transparency reports, it can be challenging to gain an accurate understanding of the state of campus hazing. HazingInfo.org makes the process of understanding this information significantly easier, by providing data in a standardized and concise way, all in one place. Still, standardized and mandated reporting will continue to be key to making this information more accessible to the general public.

In the absence of all states passing strong anti-hazing laws, Houtz believes that federal legislation, the Stop Campus Hazing Act, would greatly increase the accessibility of this data and thus provide more robust consumer protection – allowing students and their families to make informed decisions at every institution across the country, regardless of where they go to school. The legislation would require institutions to include hazing incident statistics in their Annual Security Reports (under the Clery Act), creating a standardized place for this information and national trends to be analyzed. Additionally, hazing prevention education will be strengthened, and transparency will be significantly increased by requiring institutions in every state, not just the aforementioned ten, to post and regularly update campus hazing incident transparency reports. Houtz’s goal is that every US college and university will be included in the HazingInfo.org database – an effort that would be accelerated with the passage of the Stop Campus Hazing Act. 

The site is currently searchable by state and institution, with an easily navigable landing page for each institution showing the state law, the link to the hazing incident transparency report, the hazing policy, and how to report hazing on campus (often via an online reporting form). There’s been widespread interest in the site, but until now, nobody had ever done the work to ‘bring hazing out of the shadows’ with access to this type of information. HazingInfo.org fills a gap in current resources and information about campus hazing incidents, and the team intends to keep advancing the site by pushing for federal legislation, contacting institutions that are currently not publicly reporting hazing incidents that are mandated to, and helping to educate site users about how to interpret reports and navigate hazing and its prevention at colleges and universities. 

Support the Federal Legislation

To support the Stop Campus Hazing Act, fill out this form to urge your Senators to support the bill as it moves through the 118th Congress. Read Houtz’s recent Op-Ed in The Hill, which further expands on the importance of this legislation from her personal perspective.  

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Questions? Reach out to StopHazing at info@stophazing.org