Now in year two of enforcement, the Stop Campus Hazing Act magnified higher education institutions’ focus on hazing. While the law brings more transparency to campus hazing issues that have already occurred, many leaders are looking to shift the focus from documentation to actual prevention.
We sat down with Todd Shelton, Executive Director of the Hazing Prevention Network, and David Chadwick, CEO and Founder of RealResponse, to discuss how campus leaders can transform their efforts to mitigate hazing risks before they escalate.
The Stop Campus Hazing Act requires campuses to be more diligent about reporting hazing incidents and investing in preventive education. What have you seen change across the industry over the last year, and what hasn’t changed enough?
Todd: One of the biggest positives we’ve seen is the fact that hazing is a topic of conversation across campuses. For decades, the conversation primarily existed in fraternities and sororities. But the research shows that hazing isn’t isolated to Greek life. Some of the requirements of the law have brought the conversation to athletics, club sports, conduct offices, and so we have different teams around campus starting to work together to educate and hold students accountable.
What trends have you seen across fraternities, sororities, athletics, or other student organizations that campus leaders should pay closer attention to?
Todd: There are a few things we’re seeing when it comes to student behavior:
- Many students experienced structured play when they were children, so there’s an expectation that they won’t have to use much of their own creativity designing their experiences when they come to college. Traditions and rites of passage are ripe for hazing activities because students are receptive to activities being structured for them.
- Students are incredibly status-driven. The teams and organizations they join are primed for hazing activities, because they’re so invested in being a part of that group. They’re willing to do things they might not normally do because they feel it’s important to be there.
- Students are smart. They’re looking for ROI from any activities they do. When campus leaders want to incorporate hazing prevention education or reporting protocols into students’ lives, the students want to know what they get out of it. So it’s important that we’re talking about their safety, and building stronger organizations and teams through healthy bonding.
People often think of hazing as isolated incidents, or the result of a few bad actors. What should institutions understand about the broader culture and systems that allow hazing to persist?
Todd: Research shows almost half of students have experienced hazing before they get to college. It’s not just a few bad actors if that many incoming students were already exposed to hazing, but I do think the vast majority of students are having positive experiences once they get to campus. Within a team or an organization, it’s likely a few bad actors who are creating hazing activities (and doing so not necessarily under the guidance of the larger organization or the team leadership.)
Students pay attention to their peers. If they see something going on in another organization or on their friend’s campus, they may try to duplicate that activity (which is how we often see hazing spread).
It’s also important to understand “tolerable deviance.” Students seeking a rite of passage may see an activity that for the most part is good, with some hazing activity involved, and so they participate just to get through it. When it’s their turn to be in charge, hazing may creep into the activity a little more. Then the next group sees the deviance but still chooses to participate, and pretty soon hazing becomes the majority of an activity—if you’re not careful.
Which prevention strategies have you seen institutions implement and see success with?
Todd: Prevention should address the individual, organizational, and community levels. We should be looking at student development. We should be looking at accountability and compliance.
Campuses shouldn’t be scared to see an uptick, at least initially, in reporting. If we’ve educated students on what hazing is and told them how to report it, reporting is more likely to happen.
It’s also important for campus leaders to include students in everything we do. Including them in conversations about how we address hazing are critical because students don’t want to be spoken to, they’d like to be spoken with.
What’s detrimental is when a campus looks at what another campus is doing and thinks they can copy it. Every campus has different students and different situations, different organizations, different team traditions. You have to look at where your campus is in terms of hazing behavior and build out your prevention efforts based on that, not what’s happening elsewhere.
David: I always emphasize the importance of relationships and creating a culture of trust. If you don’t have relationships in place, people will feel uncomfortable reporting because they don’t know where it goes, or who receives it, and what they’re going to do with it.
We’ve seen success from partners who are very intentional with helping their communities understand, ‘This is the group behind the reporting process. This is how we intake reports and this is what we’re going to do after we receive it.’ This ultimately leads to more, and probably better, reports coming in.
We also see a lot of examples where people are willing to come forward and attach their name to their report, which is the best-case scenario. If you build the relationships first, you’re putting the foundation in place for better reporting in the future.
What role can technology play in creating a safer pathway for reporting concerns before they escalate?
Todd: Traditional website forms that someone can submit information through anonymously don’t work because we learn enough information to be concerned about a situation, but it always leaves questions open that we’re unable to respond to because we don’t have the person’s name or contact information.
That’s why technology like RealResponse is an important tool for campuses and organizations. The student still has anonymity, but the organization or administrator has the ability to follow up and ask questions.
How do you see anonymous reporting and communication fitting into this comprehensive prevention strategy?
Todd: Education does nothing if we’re not holding students accountable. When we’re looking at our overall hazing prevention plans, education and accountability go hand in hand. To get from education to accountability, students need a means of reporting right when they see or are participating in hazing activities. Reporting is key to holding students accountable and letting other students know that the campus takes hazing (or any incident) seriously.
David: One, having robust reporting policies in place that people are aware of, and two, the ease of the report, are strong prevention tactics. People will be less likely to act on bad behaviors if they know they might get reported. Are you going to speed when you know a cop is sitting on the side of the road who can catch you? Probably not.
What do students need to feel comfortable coming forward?
Todd: Students have to have a confidence level in who they’re reporting to. Whether it’s an anonymous report or a named report, they want to know that they’re going to be treated with respect, and that their information is sensitive and won’t be broadcast.
Students also need to see action happen if they’re going to report. They don’t want to make a report, then weeks or months go by and they never see or hear anything related to it. They need to know that people are being held accountable for whatever hazing incidents are occurring. Obviously there needs to be an investigation and the school’s process for investigating hazing needs to be very clear and public. And once the investigation is over, if students are found guilty, action has to be taken. Students will stop reporting if they don’t see anything happening as a result.
David: Students need to feel appreciated and trust the process. If students don’t feel confident that the person they’re reporting to is going to do anything, it’s going to significantly decrease the likelihood that they report at all. Or they’ll find another outlet to go to. They’ll go to the student newspaper or, in extreme examples, they hire an attorney and then it’s a lawsuit. You want to have the channels for those concerns to come forward sooner before they escalate into high profile issues.
It’s one thing to have a reporting system set up, but once you receive reports, are you acknowledging that you’ve heard your community? Are you communicating what changed based on information that was brought forward?
Our athletics clients in particular make it a habit to let their teams know, ‘We heard your voice, this is what was brought forward, and this is how we handled it.’ That might have been a showerhead in the locker room that wasn’t producing enough hot water, which is low-hanging fruit. But maybe that was what a person needed to feel confident in the reporting system, which ultimately leads to them coming forward when it’s time to share details of a hazing incident.
What would you recommend institutions’ top priorities be over the next few years as they continue to implement the requirements of the Stop Campus Hazing Act?
Todd: I have three top priorities for campuses:
- Engage stakeholders across your campus. Hazing is not just in one community, it’s across the entire campus, so involving leaders across the entire university or college is important.
- Move beyond compliance as a checkbox. We should be using compliance as something that we measure our success with, but not just a checkbox.
- Most importantly, engage with your students. Dr. Emily Perlow, who developed our Hazing Prevention Institute, often uses this quote: ‘Nothing for them without them.’ We’re not going to get anywhere if we don’t involve the students in our prevention efforts.
What are your hopes for how technology can help higher education leaders move from reactive to more proactive responses and prevention?
David: AI presents countless opportunities for assistance and improvement. There’s a lot of data and trends to track across many different student organizations, and many different institutions. There’s the potential to wrap our heads better around what the leading indicators of hazing are and what we can do to curb those bad behaviors.
AI shouldn’t necessarily respond back to a reporter, but it can certainly equip institutions to be more responsive when reports do come in. Whether it’s screening the reports and escalating the ones that need more attention, or drawing on a knowledge base of the school’s policies and procedures and suggesting follow-up actions based on a report.
I’m thinking about how we can leverage technology to not only accomplish the goals we’ve addressed for years (better reporting and responsiveness), but to equip leaders to use their time better and have the biggest outcome or the best results.
Learn more about how RealResponse can amplify the voices and insights you need to protect your entire campus community.
