Hazing Prevention

Hazing endangers the mental or physical health/safety or coerces someone to endanger their mental or physical health/safety, REGARDLESS of one’s willingness to participate

Identifying what types of activities could be hazing and knowing what signs might indicate someone is being hazed is the first step in preventing hazing.

Types of hazing and examples:

• Verbal abuse: being yelled at, threatened, or intimidated
• Personal servitude: getting someone’s meals, serving as their driver
• Social isolation: not being allowed to spend time with other people/groups
• Embarrassing activities: wearing an article of clothing against their choice, having someone ask another person uncomfortable questions
• Power imbalance: older individual(s) with more power asking others to complete pointless tasks
• Sleep deprivation: attending meetings at obscure hours, driving people around late at night
• Pointless tasks: completing tasks that have nothing to do with the organization’s purpose
• Forced or coerced alcohol: drinking games, rapid or mass consumption of alcohol
• Physical requirements: pushups, running, forced exercise outside of the organization’s mission

Signs that someone might be experiencing hazing:

• Sudden change in behavior or attitude after joining the organization
• Wanting to leave the organization with no real explanation
• Sudden decrease in communication with friends and family
• Physical or psychological exhaustion
• Unexplained weight loss
• Unexplained injuries or illness
• Change in sleeping or eating habits
• Withdrawal from normal activities
• Expressed feeling of sadness or feeling of worthlessness
• Increase in secrecy and unwillingness to share details

Is this activity hazing?

If the answer is “yes” to any of these questions, the activity is probably hazing.

• Would I feel uncomfortable participating in this activity if my family, a university administrator, or the media were watching?
• Would active/older members of the group refuse to participate?
• Would I get in trouble if a university administrator walked by and saw us?
• Am I being asked to keep these activities a secret?
• Am I doing anything illegal?
• Does this activity violate my values/my organization’s values?
• Do members defend this as “tradition?”
• Is this activity pointless/adding no value to the organization?
• Is this activity causing emotional and/or physical distress to myself/others?

As members of the Volunteer community, we must all work together to end hazing.

Be proactive in preventing hazing

1. Know the rules
2. Clarify expectations of membership
   • Members should be clear and transparent with new members about what they will encounter when they join the group.
3. Hold yourself and your peers accountable
4. When planning activities, consider:
   • What are the potential outcomes?
   • How does this activity align with the core values of the group?
   • What do you want members to gain from the experience?
   • What do you want your organizational culture to be? What you permit, you promote. The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior leaders are willing to tolerate.
5. Provide alternative activities for bonding

It is important to report  behavior that you’ve identified might be hazing.

Please use this Reporting Form  or contact Student Conduct and Community Standards at 901.448.1646 or sccs@uthsc.edu

When reporting, please include as many of the following details as possible:

• Organization name
• When/where the event(s) occurred
• Videos, screenshots, or pictures (they can be uploaded directly in the Reporting Form)
• Names of individuals involved (if known)
• How you became aware of the information

Note: Hazing reports can be made anonymously.