Editor’s note: This is part of our blog series, “The State of Hazing,” investigating the impact of hazing laws in nine states that require public disclosure of hazing incidents.
At least 224 campus hazing incidents have been reported by Pennsylvania’s colleges and universities since 2018.
That is the highest number of reported hazing incidents across nine states that currently require the public disclosure of campus hazing incidents.
But there’s more to the story of hazing in Pennsylvania, according to a new HazingInfo.org investigation.
Nearly one-third of colleges and universities in Pennsylvania are not publicly reporting their hazing incidents as required by the state’s nearly 7-year-old anti-hazing law. That law was passed following the high-profile hazing death of Timothy Piazza in 2017 at The Pennsylvania State University.
And nearly one-quarter of Pennsylvania schools that are reporting hazing are at least two years out of date.
Evelyn Piazza, Tim’s mother and a national hazing prevention advocate, called the numbers infuriating.
“Who is it in a state who makes sure people are complying with the law? And what are the repercussions?” Piazza asked. “We know there is more hazing going on that should be reported.”
HazingInfo found that 66 out of 97 higher education institutions in Pennsylvania make hazing incident data publicly available on their websites.
But 15 of those schools haven’t provided updated information since at least 2023.
Lehigh University reported the highest number of hazing incidents in the state, with 28 incidents between 2018 and 2025, followed by University of Pittsburgh with 24 and Penn State with 21.
Pennsylvania college hazing data, 2018 to February 2025
The data comes from a national investigation by HazingInfo. Across the nine states with laws on hazing transparency, HazingInfo found 946 reported incidents of hazing on 171 campuses between 2018 and February 2025.
It is the first time the total number of reported US hazing incidents has been tallied — and likely just a fraction of the true number of hazing cases.
The HazingInfo investigation only included misconduct formally determined to be hazing by the institution. It omitted other kinds of misconduct like alcohol violations or assaults that weren’t officially labeled as hazing.
Our investigation also found that nearly all of Pennsylvania’s 97 colleges and universities have hazing policies in place. But just 62 campuses provide a way for students or parents to report hazing through an online reporting form.
Twenty-four hazing deaths have been reported in Pennsylvania between 1916 and 2024, according to HazingInfo’s Hazing Deaths Database, based on information gathered by hazing investigator Hank Nuwer.
Tim Piazza’s death from hazing at his fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, sparked nationwide outrage and helped lead
Even the simplest things bring back bittersweet memories, like seeing Tim’s favorite cookies and cream Pop Tarts in the grocery aisle, Evelyn said. “You don’t know how much I wish I could be buying those still.”
She and her husband, Jim, have crisscrossed the country for eight years, sharing Tim’s story with college students, Greek organizations, policymakers, and others.
“For as long as I can keep telling Tim’s story, ripping off the Band-Aid every time, it’s like I’m still holding on to him,” Evelyn said. “If I can keep saving a life here or there … ”
During the pandemic, campus invitations for her to share Tim’s story with students began to drop as colleges shut down and sent students home. Requests have remained low, and Evelyn believes colleges and Greek organizations have been more focused on post-pandemic recovery and rebuilding their membership ranks than hazing prevention.
“I’m trying to be optimistic that we’re making a difference. I hope we’re making some progress, but how do you measure that?” she said.
In the US, there has been at least one recorded hazing death each year since 1959. At least seven college students have died nationwide since 2023 due to hazing.
Piazza believes the best way to end hazing is more criminal prosecutions. “Not throwing everyone in jail. But (hazing) needs to be on their record,” she said.
She sees similarities to drunk driving. Before Mothers Against Drunk Driving and other advocacy groups started pushing for more accountability, impaired driving wasn’t considered a big deal, Piazza said.
“You just poured out the alcohol and went on your way,” she said. “Now you lose your license, your insurance goes up, your car is impounded, and you could go to jail. It’s taken seriously now, and hazing is not.”
She would also like to see colleges share more information with parents about hazing — and not just in a “check-the-box” way.
“They need to talk about it at orientation, not just during the Greek life sessions, when parents and students are in the same room,” she said.
“And they need to go into depth. Talk about their transparency report and show people where it is.”
Hazing transparency reports are a new requirement for all US colleges and universities starting December 23, 2025.
That’s when campuses must post a Campus Hazing Transparency Report on their public websites that summarizes findings against any student organization for hazing violations.
It’s part of a new federal law called the Stop Campus Hazing Act, passed in 2024, that will give students and families access to campus hazing data for the first time.
The new law may help usher in “a golden age of prevention” for hazing as well as hazardous drinking and violence prevention on campuses, said Stevan Veldkamp, executive director of the Timothy J. Piazza Center for Fraternity and Sorority Research at Pennsylvania State University.
The Piazza Center is a multidisciplinary research facility that addresses issues within the Greek-letter community, funded by Penn State, the Piazzas, and a number of national fraternity organizations, along with other donors.
“We’re seeing more attention to hazing now than we’ve ever had,” Veldkamp said. “When you address hazing in a well-rounded way, you start seeing reduced hazing, reduced sexual violence, and reduced hazardous drinking.”
It is challenging for campus professionals to address all of those issues simultaneously, said Veldkamp, who previously served as assistant dean of students at Indiana University Bloomington. “They’re not resourced to do it all.”
Hazing prevention shouldn’t just be considered the work of the fraternity and sorority life office or the student conduct office, Veldkamp said. It also needs to involve public health, implementation science, biobehavioral health, and others for sustainable change across the student population.
Prevention also needs to be about more than just a single online training course or a week of activities for National Hazing Awareness Week, he said. “The approach needs to be comprehensive.”
Campus authorities need to “get clear with themselves and students” about what hazing is and what it looks like on their campus “so that when we see it, we know it and can account for it,” he said.
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Learn about hazing on your campus: HazingInfo's Campus Lookup
Read more in our series about the State of Hazing in Georgia, Louisiana, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina, and Washington. Coming soon: Texas and Virginia.