Each year, as students head to college and begin exploring new organizations, teams, and communities, families often have questions about how to help them stay safe. As members of the Holmes Murphy Fraternal Practice, Education Consultant Bobbi Larsen and I work with fraternities, sororities, and campus partners across the country to support risk management and student well-being. In this article, we share practical guidance to help loved ones recognize hazing, support students through challenging situations, and understand the changes brought by the Stop Campus Hazing Act.

Key Takeaways

• Learn the warning signs of college hazing before they escalate.
• Understand how the Stop Campus Hazing Act increases campus transparency.
• Start meaningful conversations about hazing before your student joins an organization.
• Know where to report concerns and find resources if you suspect hazing.

Help Your Student Stand Up Against Hazing

College is a season of possibilities: new friendships, new organizations, new teams, and new communities that can shape a student’s confidence and sense of belonging.

But for some students, the desire to belong can also create vulnerability to hazing, especially when traditions, secrecy, pressure, or fear are framed as “just part of the experience.”

Parents, family members, partners, and close friends are often the first people who notice when something feels wrong. You may hear exhaustion in a phone call, see sudden secrecy in text messages, notice unexplained injuries, or sense that your student is trying to convince themselves that discomfort is normal.

Your voice matters. A caring question, a clear expectation, or an early report can interrupt harm before it escalates.

The Holmes Murphy Fraternal Practice works alongside fraternities, sororities, host institutions, and campus partners to support safer campus communities through risk management, education, prevention, and response efforts. With students returning to campus, now is the perfect time for families and loved ones to have conversations about hazing, understand the warning signs, know where to seek support, and learn how the Stop Campus Hazing Act is reshaping transparency and accountability around hazing prevention and reporting.

What To Know About the Stop Campus Hazing Act

The Stop Campus Hazing Act was signed into federal law in December 2024 and amends the federal campus safety reporting framework. Its goal is to improve transparency, prevention, and accountability so students and families can make more informed decisions about campus organizations.

Under the law, colleges and universities must collect and report hazing statistics in annual security reports, maintain hazing policies that explain how to report and how investigations work, provide prevention and awareness education, and publish a Campus Hazing Transparency Report that identifies student organizations found responsible for hazing violations.

For fraternal organizations, this kind of transparency also reinforces the importance of clear policies, prevention education, reporting pathways, investigation practices, and crisis planning.

What does this mean for parents and loved ones?

• You can look for hazing statistics in a college’s annual security report.
• You can review the school’s hazing policy and reporting process before your student joins an organization.
• You can check whether an organization has been found responsible for hazing and what sanctions were imposed.
• You can ask colleges how they educate students, faculty, staff, coaches, advisors, and organization leaders about prevention and bystander intervention.

What Can Hazing Look Like?

Hazing can take many forms, including sleep deprivation, forced workouts, exposure to extreme weather, or other exhausting physical demands. It may also involve environments where students are encouraged or feel pressured to drink alcohol, consume substances, eat unusual amounts of food, or participate in dangerous challenges.

In some cases, hazing includes humiliation, intimidation, threats, forced secrecy, isolation, or activities designed to make someone feel powerless. Any demand that interferes with class, work, sleep, health, relationships, or a student’s ability to leave or say no should be taken seriously.

Hazing can occur in a variety of settings including fraternal organizations, athletic teams, clubs, bands, student organizations, honor societies, and other groups where membership or belonging is involved. If you suspect hazing, talk with your student, document concerns, review campus reporting options, and contact university officials if health or safety may be at risk.

Hazing Heart-to-Heart Checklist

As your student navigates the transition to college and starts looking for organizations to join, take these steps and revisit them during high-risk periods, such as recruitment, tryouts, new-member education, training camp, performance seasons, or initiation/intake processes.

Talk early

Ask what groups, teams, or organizations they are interested in and discuss the difference between healthy belonging and coercive “tradition.”

Set a clear expectation

Belonging should never require humiliation, secrecy, injury, illegal activity, or pressure to consume alcohol or other substances.

Create a code phrase

Agree on a simple phrase your student can text or say if they need help leaving a situation without explaining in the moment.

Know campus reporting options

Find the school or organization hazing policy, reporting form, student conduct office, campus safety contact, and emergency numbers before there is a crisis.

Check the transparency report

Look for the college’s Campus Hazing Transparency Report on their website and review the organizations on the list.

Watch for patterns

Pay attention to unusual exhaustion, secrecy, unexplained injuries, isolation, fear of missing events, sudden mood changes, or academic decline.

Report concerns early

If your student is in danger, call 911 immediately. You do not need proof that something “counts” as hazing to ask questions or alert campus officials, national/international organizations when you are concerned about safety.

Ask Questions

What does the group ask new members to do during the joining process?

• Are you ever expected to keep activities secret from parents, advisors, coaches, or campus officials?
• Can you leave an activity without consequences if you feel unsafe, overwhelmed, or uncomfortable?
• Does anything interfere with sleep, class, work, mental health, physical health, or relationships?
• Who would you go to on campus if you were worried about yourself or someone else?

A helpful way to begin is simple: “If anything ever feels unsafe, humiliating, secretive, or like you cannot say no, I want you to call me. I will help first, and we can figure out next steps together.”

Resources to Protect What Matters Most

Keep these resources handy and share them with your student before they get involved in a team, club, fraternity, sorority, band, student government, or other campus organization.

• Report hazing concerns: 1-888-NOT-HAZE (1-888-668-4293)
• Taking Care of Your Mental Health When Joining a Fraternity or Sorority | JED
• Hazing Prevention Network
• StopHazing.org
• State Anti-Hazing Laws
• Clery Center Hazing Prevention & Education

Hazing Prevention is a Shared Responsibility

Families and loved ones are an important part of the effort to prevent hazing. Staying engaged, recognizing warning signs, and speaking up early can help protect students and create campus communities where belonging never comes at the expense of safety or well-being.

The Holmes Murphy Fraternal Practice helps fraternities, sororities, and campus partners minimize risk and maximize the positive experiences that make college memorable with risk management, insurance solutions, educational resources, and support during challenging moments. Reach out to our team to learn more.