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“Taking small steps in the way of hazing prevention work leads to bigger change on campus and is the beginning steps of changing the culture of your institution.“

Jay Muszynsky

As a graduate student in the Higher Education and Student Affairs master’s program at Indiana University, I had the opportunity to attend StopHazing’s Hazing Prevention Academy (HPA). I was able to attend breakout sessions with campus professionals from California to Wisconsin, representing flagships and small liberal arts colleges alike. I heard the opportunities and challenges for implementing hazing prevention education across the campus ecology into campus culture and fostering commitment, while also expanding capacity to make hazing a campus-wide effort. Below are my five takeaways from the HPA:

1. Hazing Transparency

The session started with an introduction from keynote speaker Jolayne Houtz, the founder of HazingInfo.org. Through Jolayne sharing her son’s story and information about her website, I learned that there are nine states with laws requiring universities to report their hazing incidents online, with Indiana recently becoming the tenth state. Additionally, in December, the Stop Campus Hazing Act (SCHA), a federal bill with bipartisan support, was signed into law by President Biden in December 2024. Jolayne said that Hazinginfo.org will be updated to reflect all 50 states in the near future. 

With President Biden signing the Stop Campus Hazing Act (SCHA) into law, all colleges and universities are now required to publicly disclose hazing violations, shifting responsibility from state-by-state discretion to a national standard. This legislation enhances student and family agency by allowing them to make informed decisions about student involvement in campus organizations. Students, families, and the public deserve to know about an organization’s history of hazing violations and deserve to weigh this information when deciding whether to join the organization, giving the SCHA the ability to support student agency. You can find more information about the timeline for the SCHA here.

As a whole, Jolayne inspired me to look more critically at institutions to see what information is included in their transparency reports, what resources they offer students, and if there is a dedicated website for hazing and its prevention. Regardless of what functional area I end up in, I want to know how the institution is protecting students and ensuring that parents, guardians, and families know that their students are protected. As a student affairs practitioner in the middle of the full-time job search, one of my priorities has been to look at how institutions are supporting students holistically, and hazing prevention and transparency is a part of that.

2. How Hazing Commitment Shows up in Different Institutions

One of my favorite parts of the training session was the breakout rooms and hearing from campus professionals across the country. In these breakout sessions, we discussed how institutions vary in their policies regarding hazing prevention. I learned that some institutions have different hazing prevention policies per department, while others have campus-wide policies. 

When policies differ across departments, silos develop, creating inconsistency in how hazing is addressed. Per SCHA, campuses are required to have a campus-wide hazing policy. This has influenced me to look closely at different institutions’ hazing policies, whether they have one, and if it is the same across functional areas. Specifically, I’m looking for the two specific policies in the campus’s Annual Security Reports required through the SCHA. You can find support regarding policy development here. 

One of the things I noticed from the discussions is the use of the conduct process to address hazing that occurs on campus. Conduct, however, is not a method of primary prevention for hazing; it’s reactionary or tertiary hazing prevention. During the Hazing Prevention Academy, campus professionals discussed where their campuses were in taking steps to prevent hazing before an incident occurs and to analyze how to make hazing prevention stronger. As professionals walk away (or log off) of the training, they’re given resources on the Hazing Prevention Framework (HPF) and ways to implement the different tenets of the framework on their campuses. 

As I search for full-time roles, I’ll be paying close attention to whether institutions have clear, unified, hazing prevention strategies and whether they welcome continued improvement. I’m excited about the possibility of introducing the commitment action guide, specifically the information gathering tool, to the campus to build coalitions and capacity among campus stakeholders. One of my favorite things about being a student affairs professional is the opportunity for assessment and growth, which aligns directly with refining hazing prevention on university campuses. 

Ultimately, changing campus culture, especially related to hazing, is more than simply changing words used on campus. It requires changing actions, policies, and procedures to be preventative work and not reactionary work. Commitment is something that builds over time, and needs to be practiced at all levels of the campus ecology from students, to functional areas, to administrators. As Allan and colleagues (2018) state, “commitment is about leadership and credibility”. Cornell is an excellent example of what hazing commitment looks like, as they have committed to posting a transparent hazing website for nearly 20 years and regularly share leadership statements affirming the institution’s commitment to hazing prevention.

3. Hazing in Context

The National Study of Student Hazing, confirms that hazing happens across a wide range of groups and is not only found in social Greek organizations and athletics. During the Hazing Prevention Academy, there were representatives from smaller universities with primarily professional organizations. One of the challenges brought up during the training was navigating hazing when it’s not outwardly seen, and how to navigate hazing in different settings–specifically for campuses that have more professional and academic organizations than social organizations. 

Typically, as seen by an activity done during the session, when professionals think of hazing, the first organization type they think of is a social fraternity or sorority. However, because hazing is explicitly tied to group contexts, any team, organization, or club has the potential for hazing. This then begs the conversation of how do you prevent hazing for professional organizations, or underground organizations?

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Knowing the signs of hazing and what hazing looks like, as seen in the StopHazing’s Spectrum of Hazing is the first step in preventative work. Once a professional, or any community member, can recognize what hazing can look like, it becomes easier to identify hazing behaviors and know when to intervene during an organization’s new member rituals, whether they are social organizations, academic, or professional. This is where the SCHA comes in, requiring research-informed hazing prevention programs and education. The first step in preventing hazing is education on what hazing is.

4. Hopeful, not Hopeless

As previously mentioned, the HPA can be, and for some campus professionals is, the first step in making a change in implementing and improving hazing prevention work on campus. The Hazing Prevention Academy, though a three-hour long session, felt like it breezed by even though it was full of information. The facilitators presented concrete examples and research-based content in an easily digestible and understandable format, balancing participant engagement and information sharing. 

I have discussed culture change in relation to hazing prevention, sense of belonging, and holistic student support of students throughout their academic journey, but I also recognize that this is a lot to ask of one person. One of the recommendations brought up during the HPA is making small steps, such as gathering campus-specific data using this information-gathering tool or sharing anecdotal evidence from students themselves about the prevalence and realities of data.

To do this, institutions need to build capacity to implement hazing prevention. Hazing prevention cannot be on one person or even one office alone, it needs to be a collaborative effort. Some of the steps recommended during the HPA was: 

  • Implement hazing prevention question(s) into job interviews in order to gauge what background professionals have in hazing prevention work. 
  • Incorporating hazing prevention work into graduate student job descriptions, while also advocating for a full-time hazing prevention specialist position.
  • Starting anti-hazing coalitions and building networks across campus to support hazing prevention and increase education and training.

5. Resources for Hazing Prevention Work

One of the biggest barriers campus professionals see in implementing hazing prevention is funding. However, in addition to the aforementioned HazingInfo.org, StopHazing and other organizations such as  Clery Center offer free hazing prevention resources to take the first steps in implementing hazing prevention. There are many more free resources through StopHazing, here are just a few: 

  • Hazing Prevention Resources–StopHazing’s comprehensive page for resources relating to hazing prevention. Includes information on the only data-driven Hazing Prevention Framework for hazing prevention, the Spectrum of Hazing, information on the SCHA, digital tools, webinars, and information on hazing policies and laws. 
  • Making Space for Leaders to Lead Change: An Abbreviated Facilitators Guide– This is a workshop focused on self-reflection for leaders to create healthy environments. It explores belonging, mental health, and wellbeing. 
  • Hazing Prevention Toolkit For Campus Professionals–Created specifically for campus professionals, this toolkit has a conceptual structure and action guide for comprehensive hazing prevention on your campus. 
  • Student Action Guide for Hazing Prevention–Created by and for student leaders to prevent hazing on campus, focusing on practical resources, engagement ideas, and tools for students to work with campus professionals to prevent hazing on campus. 
  • SCHA Getting Started Guide–This explains what the SCHA is and how it impacts colleges and universities.

Attending the Hazing Prevention Academy during my job search has influenced how I evaluate the institutions I am applying to. I will intentionally investigate the policies, data, and prevention interventions available on campus. I will look for ways to strengthen what exists and advocate for continuous work to be done. 

My message to current student affairs professionals is that Hazing prevention work does not have to be daunting or cost a lot of money, but it does take time and dedication. There are resources available to make hazing prevention and implementing effective strategies easier. We are all here to support and help students, and by prioritizing hazing prevention on our campuses, we can further this mission by advancing student safety, as well.

Guest Author: Jay Muszynsky

StopHazing Content Writing Intern