The Early Warning Signs of Hazing in College Fraternities and Sororities

Abstract

College students in today’s fraternities and sororities do not fully understand where the line is between new member education and hazing, and the student affairs professionals who advise them do not have a common understanding of when and where they should intervene. While the Stop Campus Hazing Act helped with a federal definition of hazing, obstacles still remain. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to investigate the beliefs and attitudes of student affairs professionals who advise active fraternity and sorority members on college campuses. The study will focus on their understanding of hazing, as well as their identification of intervention strategies to enhance student safety.

This study utilized a phenomenological research approach to explore how student affairs professionals described their definition of hazing. In this qualitative study, I reported lived experiences surrounding the phenomenon of hazing on college campuses. Nine student affairs professionals revealed common meaning in what they have experienced and how they experienced it through interviews. The research questions were: How do student affairs professionals describe their definition of hazing? How is hazing prevention and intervention addressed through practices, priorities, and policies?

The findings include inconsistencies around hazing (definitions, activities, and stated values of the organizations versus actions), building trust and early intervention are critical in preventing hazing, there are funding and capacity issues within the Fraternity and Sorority Life office, there is a lack of data in the profession, a heavy emotional burden is being placed on Student Affairs professionals, and universities are circumventing the law by hiring external partners to resolve hazing cases that will be undocumented.

The implications for institutional policy include building a greater awareness of the new federal laws, finding ways to encourage students to come forward with hazing reports, creating a hazing prevention task force with campus-wide representation, creating transparency in hazing reporting across universities and national organization, building a national database of Fraternity/Sorority members to advocate, investing more resources and staffing in the Fraternity and Sorority Life offices, and starting education on hazing prevention in K-12 schools.