President Biden signed the Stop Campus Hazing Act, which requires colleges and universities to disclose hazing incidents in their annual security reports. The law defines hazing as “any intentional, knowing, or reckless act committed by a person against a student” that “causes or is likely to contribute to a substantial risk… of physical injury, mental harm, or degradation” (the definition explicitly applies to acts connected to a student’s affiliation with campus organizations such as sports teams, clubs, fraternities and sororities). Colleges and universities will be required to produce publicly available campus hazing transparency reports that summarize findings of student organizations that violated college hazing rules, general descriptions of the violations including whether they involved the abuse or illegal use of alcohol or drugs and any sanctions placed on the involved student organization by the college, Forbes reports. Forty-four states have varying anti-hazing laws in place, according to anti-hazing advocacy group StopHazing.org, which notes some states have more comprehensive laws than others while some states “fail to legally address hazing at all.” Some state anti-hazing laws have been derived from high-profile hazing incidents, such as the death of Matt Carrington, a California State University, Chico student who died of water intoxication after being taunted, forced to do push ups and drink excessive amounts of water in a cold, damp basement.
Georgia’s Max Gruver Act—named after the LSU student who died after participating in an alcohol-chugging ritual— requires public disclosure of hazing incidents. The transparency reports will not include names of individual students, according to the law, which does not note federal punishments for colleges found to be in violation of the new reporting standards. Some 55% of college students have been involved in student organizations who experienced hazing, said a 2008 University of Maine report. Only one in 10 of that share of students labeled it hazing. A lack of up-to-date data on hazing at the national level has persisted into 2024, as state reporting requirements vary significantly. According to a HazingInfo.orgr eport that looked into hazing reporting practices of 467 U.S. colleges and universities in nine states, some 47% had not publicly reported hazing incidents as required by state law. The report noted that 25 of Georgia’s 55 colleges did not have publicly accessible hazing reports on their websites. Advocates argue that the punishments for hazing in some states, such as misdemeanor charges, do not do enough to deter hazing on college campuses. Todd Shelton of the Hazing Prevention Network said a hurdle in preventing hazing is “getting the penalty or statute to match the seriousness of the crime.”