This week the Fraternity and Sorority Community will be observing National Hazing Prevention week.
“One of the things I always present on is not just the big hazing you think of, like paddling and alcohol, but the more subtle forms,” Gina Keucher said, Program Director of Student Activities.
Even mild forms of hazing can cause unknown negative side effects that many do not understand.
“Harassment forms of hazing can cause harms in many different ways,” Keucher said. “It’s the hidden harms that we don’t think about, because we don’t know everything about somebody’s past.”
To spread awareness students will be hosting information sessions about hazing and how to report it, a case study competition, hosting a screening of the film GOAT and tabling around campus.
According to the National Study of Student Hazing, of students that were involved on campus, 55 percent reported experiencing at least one form of hazing in their involvement in campus clubs, team or student organization.
The study defined hazing as, “any activity expected of someone joining or participating in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses or endangers them regardless of a person’s willingness to participate.”
The two most common forms of hazing found in the study are participating in drinking games and singing or chanting in a public place that is not related to an event or practice.
Twenty-five percent of the hazing experiences reported in this study, students believed coaches or advisors were aware of the activities taking place.
