2. It is only by having information about
hazing activities that officials charged
with safeguarding the safety of
students can take the necessary
steps to prevent, intervene, or
investigate hazing activities that put
the safety and well-being of students
at risk and deal appropriately with the
alleged hazers.

3. Therefore, it is vitally important for
anyone, students and others, who
has knowledge about planned,
ongoing, or recent hazing activities
to promptly report those activities
to university safety officers or to
local law enforcement officials.

4. Allan and Madden [4.2A] reported in
their 2008 study of hazing that there
are public aspects to student hazing
which permit coaches, organization
advisors, student peers, family, and
alumni to be aware of hazing
activities

5. Even 25% of the hazing behaviors in
this study occurred on-campus in a
public space. These findings alone
suggest that the number of persons
who can report hazing activities can
be extensive and likely includes
persons who know that acts of
hazing are prohibited.

6. In addition, in more than half of the
hazing incidents, a member of the
offending group posts pictures on a
public web space. In general then, it
is likely that hazing incidents go
unreported by members of the
campus community who are aware
of these prohibited activities.

7. The Allan and Madden study also found that only
5% of the students who considered themselves
to have been hazed reported the incidents to
university officials. The prominent reasons
students gave for not reporting being hazed
include the following:
1. not wanting to get their group or team in
trouble,
2. fear of retaliation from the team or
group,
3. and fear of being ostracized by the team
or group.

8. These reasons do not explain why other
persons not in the inner circle of the group
such as coaches, advisors, friends, alumni,
and even parents do not report known
hazing activities. It is clear that for the
majority of hazing observers there is a
conflict between the desire not to get
involved and the desire to help curb hazing
behaviors that are harming students and
their universities.

9. There is clearly a need to promote
the use of hazing reporting systems
that scrupulously guard the identity
of the persons who would report
hazing were it not for their fear of
retaliation or ostracism.

10. Two methods of reporting hazing will be briefly
discussed here, general methods and
university specific methods. An example of a
general method of reporting hazing is the
ANTIHAZE National Hazing Hotline [4.2B].
The ANTIHAZE Hotline was design to enable
students and others to report planned, active,
and recent hazing activities while providing
maximum protection protecting the identity of
the reporter.

11. This hotline operates independently of any
university and dispatches hazing alerts, alarms,
and reports to the mobile telephones and email
inboxes of designated hazing responders at the
universities involved. This method has enabled
coaches and students to report hazing activities
to campus officials, local law enforcement, and
national Greek letter organizations, while
protecting the identities of the persons making
the hazing reports.

12. The university specific methods of
reporting hazing have primarily utilized
websites that allow students and others to
anonymously submit information regarding
hazing incidents. University specific
methods of reporting hazing also include
university hotlines, email addresses to
receive hazing reports, and websites at
which hazing reports can be posted.

13. Both general and university specific
methods of reporting hazing currently in
operation provide ways of reporting hazing
activities that safeguard the identities of the
individuals who are reporting the hazing.
Each student who encounters hazing as a
bystander or hazee is encouraged to use
one of these “identity-secure” methods to
report the hazing activities to university
officials.

14. Click Reality Check to see an example of
the effectiveness of methods of identitysecure reporting hazing that is certain to be
available at your university.
The Bottom Line:
Be a Knight life guard. Report
hazing