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University of Kentucky: Revitalization

Hazing Prevention Consortium SummitJune 11-12, 2015

University of Maine

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Campus Hazing Assessment Findings

Defining Hazing

• Along with widespread awareness of hazing at UK, students convey multiple understandings and, especially in more nuanced cases, often lack clarity when it comes to differentiating whether or not certain activities constitute hazing.

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Campus Hazing Assessment Findings

Who is Hazing?

• Greek Life as a primary focus for hazing activities while findings regarding hazing within other types of students groups are less robust.

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Campus Hazing Assessment Findings

Types of Hazing

• Strong presence of hazing with a range of behaviors, from seemingly inoffensive efforts to differentiate new and veteran group members to high risk activities that involve the potential for physical, mental and emotional harm.

• The types of hazing include forms of hazing with the potential to cause physical harm as well as potentially humiliating or degrading behaviors.

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Campus Hazing Assessment Findings

Motivation for Hazing

• Students engage in hazing because they often accept it as a rite of passage and thus perceive earning one’s place in an organization through hazing in a positive light.

• Students feel that the benefits of group bonding outweigh the risks of hazing.

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Campus Hazing Assessment Findings

Hazing Awareness

• Interviewees described a culture at UK in which people know that hazing is occurring, are aware of hazing policies and informed about measures available to report it.

• Students are reluctant to report hazing because they see it as the norm, do not necessarily see the harm or potential harm it might cause, or do not want to jeopardize their membership in a group.

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Campus Hazing Assessment Findings

Perceptions of Hazing Prevention

• In addition to illuminating the deep-seated role of hazing in certain organizations, there is a gap between UK students’ awareness of hazing prevention and their ability or sense of empowerment to do something about it.

• Students are reluctant to report hazing.

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Hazing Prevention Core Strategies

• Implementation of a campus-wide hazing prevention coalition

– Coalition under new leadership with a new mission, goals, and subcommittees.

– Alcohol and Substance Education office is changing focus to Wellness Initiatives for Student Empowerment and will take on hazing prevention.

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Hazing Prevention Core Strategies

• Train all hazing prevention stakeholders, student-services staff, selected faculty, and student leaders of organizations, teams, fraternities, and sororities in bystander intervention with a specific focus on hazing. Closely aligned with UK’s culture of participation and engagement, bystander intervention will help community members to build capacity for the following key components of prevention: 1) notice hazing; 2) interpret hazing as a problem; 3) see one’s responsibility to help change it; 4) develop skills needed to intervene safely; and 5) take action.

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Hazing Prevention Core Strategies

– Coalition subcommittee is working on a new hazing prevention education session to use with different group.

– Athletics introduced the Step Up program as a bystander program.

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Hazing Prevention Core Strategies

• Form a response team to help staff determine if hazing has occurred and to help staff make decisions about informal and/or formal responses to hazing or suspected hazing. This response team will help centralize information about groups suspected of hazing, provide support for staff response, label and report suspected hazing behaviors, and over time, help to expose potential connections/patterns in campus hazing.

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Hazing Prevention Core Strategies

– Implemented the response team this semester in fraternity case. Conducted interview and produced a report which was shared with the national leadership.

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Hazing Prevention Core Strategies

• Provide targeted leadership development for students to help them make ethical decisions in the face of moral dilemmas and in the context of intense peer pressure.

– Common Goals Retreat

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Hazing Prevention Core Strategies

• Develop efforts to mitigate high-risk drinking while paying particular attention to differentiating between alcohol consumption and hazing.“

– Health and Safety Task Force reviewing University’s alcohol policy.

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Evaluation Case Study Activities

Greek 101 – Hazing Prevention PresentationPrevention Strategy: Training for student members

Learning Outcome:Students will demonstrate that they have an understanding of the hazing prevent-ion policy by demonstration their know-ledge of the definition of hazing as defined by the university.

Target Audience: New fraternity and sorority members

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Evaluation Case Study ActivitiesGreek 101 – Hazing Prevention PresentationContent:• Hazing means any action or situation created by a member of

the University Community against another member of the University Community for the purpose of affiliation with a group or organization that:

• Is negligent or reckless in nature; Is humiliating or endangers an individual; or Unreasonably interferes with scholastic or employment activities.

• Hazing may occur regardless of the individual’s willingness to participate. This regulation applies to behavior that occurs on University property. It may also apply to off‐campus behavior if the activity is sponsored, conducted, authorized, or recognized by the University, a registered University organization, or a group.

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Evaluation Case Study ActivitiesGreek 101 – Hazing Prevention PresentationContent:• Actions and situations that may constitute hazing include, but are not limited to,

the following:• Forced consumption of food, alcohol, or drugs• Paddling in any form• Creation of unnecessary fatigue• Personal servitude• Physical and/or psychological shocks• Forced wearing of apparel which is conspicuous and not normally in good taste• Degrading or humiliating games and activities• Sleep or food deprivation• Unreasonable exposure to the weather• Kidnapping or abandonment• Line‐ups and berating• Undue interference with academic pursuits• Expectation of participation in activities that are illegal, lewd or in violation of

University

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Evaluation Case Study Activities

Greek 101 – Hazing Prevention PresentationContent:• Hazing in any form is prohibited.• Complaints or reports of activities believed to be

hazing should be reported to the appropriate University Official or the University Police at (859) 257‐8573.

• More information can be found on the UK Hazing Prevention

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Evaluation Case Study Activities

Greek 101 – Hazing Prevention PresentationEvaluation Design:• Information on the hazing prevention policy was presented to

1,090 new fraternity and sorority members who also received information on fraternity and sorority life, academic resources, and violence intervention prevention.

• 1,751 new members were required to attend the informational sessions and those with conflicts were given the information by their chapter leadership.

• The information on the hazing prevention policy was presented using PowerPoint slides by student leaders who were coached by staff members in the Fraternity and Sorority Affairs office.

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Evaluation Case Study Activities

Greek 101 – Hazing Prevention PresentationEvaluation Design:• Four sessions were offered on two Sundays in groups of around

250 each. • When the students entered the session on fraternity and sorority

life they were asked to complete side 1 of the attached assessment tool which directed them to mark True or False for each statement.

• Four forms (A, B, C, and D) were developed with two focusing the definition of hazing behaviors and two focusing on statements within the university’s hazing prevention policy.

• At the end of the presentation, the students were asked to turn the form over to complete side 2.

• The forms were shuffled and distributed randomly during each session.

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Evaluation Case Study ActivitiesGreek 101 – Hazing Prevention PresentationEvaluation Design:• The data from the assessment tools were entered into

Access database and then analyzed using Excel tools. • Individual pre-test and post-test were compared to see if

the individuals answered more questions correctly during their post-test compared to their pre-test.

• Each question was also evaluated to see which of defining behavior or policy statement students understood more than others.

• The results were then discussed by the staff of the Fraternity and Sorority Affairs.

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Evaluation Case Study Findings & Evidence BaseGreek 101 – Hazing Prevention PresentationFindings:

FormTotal

StudentsPositive Learing

No Learning

Negative Learing

A 414 41% 29% 30%

B 153 28% 35% 37%

567 41% 33% 34%

C 361 25% 27% 35%

D 162 42% 29% 29%

523 33% 30% 37%

Total 1090 35% 31% 34%

Understand the Definition of Hazing

Understand Hazing Policy

Subtotal

Subtotal

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Greek 101 – Hazing Prevention PresentationFindings:

Evaluation Case Study Findings & Evidence Base

Understand the Definition of HazingAverage

98% FALSE Performing community service as a group97% FALSE Participating on an intramural chapter team97% FALSE Required attendance at chapter meetings97% FALSE Dress code for chapter meeting97% FALSE Learning fraternity or sorority songs for Ritual96% FALSE Attending mandatory96% FALSE Study Hours96% FALSE Attending date parties and other social events95% TRUE Forced consumption of food, alcohol, or drugs94% TRUE Physical and/or psychological shocks94% TRUE Degrading or humiliating games and activities93% TRUE Sleep or food deprivation92% TRUE Creation of unnecessary fatigue89% TRUE Expectation of participation illegal88% TRUE Line-ups and berating83% FALSE Higher dues for new members81% TRUE Undue interference with academic pursuits63% TRUE Personal servitude such as drivers to parties52% FALSE Initiation test on chapter history

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Greek 101 – Hazing Prevention PresentationFindings:

Evaluation Case Study Findings & Evidence Base

63% TRUE Personal servitude such as drivers to parties

52% FALSE Initiation test on chapter history

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Greek 101 – Hazing Prevention PresentationFindings:

Evaluation Case Study Findings & Evidence Base

Understand Hazing Policy

Average

94% FALSE It is only considered-University property

86% TRUE Individuals who are victims of hazing-hazing violation

86% FALSE It is only considered hazing-not willing to participate

83% TRUE An organization or group-past behaviors

83% FALSE It is only considered hazing-student organization or group

80% TRUE Individuals who-relation to that particular incident

70% TRUE An organization-a past violation of hazing

68% TRUE Any organization-threat of being charged with a hazing

63% FALSE Individuals who report-participated in the behavior

49% FALSE Any organization-charged with a hazing violation

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Greek 101 – Hazing Prevention PresentationFindings:

Evaluation Case Study Findings & Evidence Base

63% FALSE

Any organization or group that self-reports a hazing behavior to an appropriate University Official or the University Police shall being charged with a hazing violation.

49% FALSEIndividuals who report hazing activities will be individually charged with a hazing violation with they participated in the behavior.

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Evaluation Case Study Findings & Evidence BaseGreek 101 – Hazing Prevention PresentationFindings:

• Students need more intervention in the area of defining hazing especially in the area of personal servitude and what is an acceptable manner of testing new members on chapter history.

• Students need more information about hazing than given during a 20 minute presentation.

• Hazing prevention efforts may need to directly engage the differential power dynamics involved in hazing as an aspect of group bonding.

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Evaluation Case Study Findings & Evidence BaseGreek 101 – Hazing Prevention Presentation

Contributions to hazing prevention at the University of Kentucky:

Coalition sub-committee work on a more developed presentation:

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Evaluation Case Study Findings & Evidence BaseUK Hazing Prevention Presentation

• Definition • Hazing Spectrum• Case Studies/Examples of Hazing • Greater Impact of Hazing • Why Do We Haze? • Benefits of Not Hazing • Social Pressure/Bystander Effect • Response/Reporting • Groups to Cater To - Our Audience • Talking Points - Sharing With Other Offices/Student Groups

● What is the context of the activity? What are the consequences of not participating, whether that be exclusion or they think they will lose the respect of their peers? ● Respect is the key issue here, how do we hold the same standard of expectation for all members and foster respect for older and newer members. ● How do we show we care about all of our members

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Hazing Prevention Consortium Think Tank•  –What are others doing for assessment?

– How are others getting students involved?

–What funding sources exist?

– Other programming efforts?