Brigid O’Malley ‘29
News Editor
Students of all class years are now required to take an anti-hazing course by the end of the semester, Dean Todd announced last week. The new training aims to help students recognize, combat, and prevent hazing, as a part of a larger effort across colleges to create safer and healthier campus communities. The program, according to the Dean, “is designed to help you recognize hazing, understand its impact and take action to ensure that every student can belong safely and fully in our community.” Students must complete the course on Canvas by December 5, 2025.
The mandate follows the passage of the Stop Campus Hazing Act, signed into law by President Biden in late 2024 and enacted this summer. The legislation requires colleges to publicly report hazing incidents and to provide students with prevention education. Hazing is defined by the act as “any intentional, knowing, or reckless act… committed to initiate someone into a student organization in a way that creates an unreasonable risk.”
According to Campus Safety Magazine, 333 students have died from hazing since 1838, with 122 of them in just the past 25 years. Nearly 75% of varsity athletes report having been hazed, followed closely by members of Greek organizations. Still, hazing exists in a wide variety of student organizations, and must be taken seriously in all settings.
The third part of the act requires colleges to have policies dedicated to campus-wide, research-based hazing education. Hence, the assignment of StopHazing’s StandUp to Hazing course. The course asks students to complete six lessons, including those on the harms of hazing, intervention strategies, and alternative ways to build camaraderie before taking a ten-question quiz. It emphasizes that hazing occurs across a variety of student organizations and must be taken seriously in all of its forms.
Although Holy Cross does not have a large history of hazing, there are reports of alleged incidents involving the men’s and women’s rowing teams in 2017. Regardless, because institutions were not required to report incidents before this year, it remains unclear how often hazing occurred on campus in the past.
With the new reporting requirements and training in place, accountability and transparency will be strengthened and ensured.
Safety, belonging, truth, and justice are not inherent traits on a college campus. These values must be uplifted through effort and education, and a dedication to caring fully about every member of the community. This initiative may be one such step in uplifting our campus community.
Featured images courtesy of Brigid O’Malley ’29
Copy Edited by Charlotte Collins ’26
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