For the first time, college students and their families across the US could get access to details on campus hazing incidents following passage of the Stop Campus Hazing Act by the US Senate yesterday.
Information about hazing incidents is usually kept under wraps by colleges and universities, leaving students and families in the dark about which campus groups and teams pose a safety risk.
The Stop Campus Hazing Act requires all US public and private colleges and universities to publish Campus Hazing Transparency Reports on their websites, giving students and families essential information as students consider joining fraternities, sororities, athletic teams, and other campus organizations.
The bill passed the House in September and now goes to the President’s desk for signature.
HazingInfo.org is among the organizations advocating for the Stop Campus Hazing Act, alongside partner organizations including StopHazing and the Clery Center.
The new transparency reports will accelerate HazingInfo’s mission to serve as a free, comprehensive source of publicly available data on hazing at US colleges and universities to bring hazing out of the shadows.
The new data will help us identify trends and patterns in campus hazing and help inform students and families about the hazing history of campus organizations.
Many parents of hazing victims tell a similar story: They searched for information about hazing connected to a group their student wanted to join and found nothing.
In the months before my son, Sam, was killed by hazing at Washington State University in 2019, I scoured public records, news reports, and the websites of the university and the fraternity Sam was joining, Alpha Tau Omega, for information on any disciplinary action against the fraternity. I came up with nothing.
Only after Sam died did we learn that Alpha Tau Omega had a years-long track record of hazing, alcohol and drug violations, and other misconduct—facts known by both Washington State University and Alpha Tau Omega at the highest leadership levels but never shared publicly.
The Stop Campus Hazing Act gives students and families access to information colleges and universities already know about which campus organizations are hazing their members.
Families of hazing victims have helped pave the way for passage of the Stop Campus Hazing Act, channeling their grief into policy change to protect other families.
Julie Devercelly and her husband, Gary, have spent 10 years walking the halls of Congress trying to pass a version of this bill. They lost their son, Gary Jr., to fraternity hazing in 2007. Both serve on the board of the Clery Center.
“We set out to make sure what happened to our son never happened again. No parent should have to bury their child, yet our son, Gary Jr., died of acute alcohol poisoning because of a fraternity hazing ritual at Rider University in 2007,” the Devercellys said in a statement posted by StopHazing.
“Since then, we have been urging Congress to pass legislation to curb hazing on college campuses, and the day has finally come. This bill will save lives and make a real difference in the fight against hazing," the DeVercellys said.
The Stop Campus Hazing Act has several other elements that together will help to end hazing.
It creates a consistent definition of hazing for the first time and requires that each US college or university develops a campus-wide, research-based hazing education and prevention program.
The bill also mandates that colleges and universities include hazing incidents in the annual crime reports, or “Clery” reports, they are already required to produce.
Lawmakers heralded the bill’s passage as a way to protect students and improve campus safety.
“When parents send their kids away to college, they expect they will get a good education and make new friends. They don’t expect them to be harassed and hazed. Unfortunately, hazing is a dangerous—and at times deadly—reality, and we must work to end it,” said bill co-sponsor Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-MN, in a statement. “Our bipartisan legislation to improve hazing prevention efforts on college campuses has now passed the Senate and heads to the president's desk for signature, and I’ll keep working to stop this abuse and keep students safe.”
“Every student should feel safe on their college campus,” said Dr. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), another bill co-sponsor. “By increasing transparency, the Stop Campus Hazing Act ensures that hazing is never ignored. Proud to see this legislation pass Congress and look forward to it becoming law.”
Representatives Lucy McBath (D-GA) and Jeff Duncan (R-SC) were the bill's lead co-sponsors in the House of Representatives.