ASU Hazing Prevention

The Stop Campus Hazing Act

The federal Stop Campus Hazing Act (SCHA), signed December 23, 2024, aims to reduce hazing incidents on college campuses.  It requires colleges and universities, beginning July 1, 2025, to collect statistics regarding hazing incidents and to report those statistics in their Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act annual security report yearly beginning October 1, 2026 (2025 statistics).  

Additionally, the University’s annual security report must include (1) a statement of current policies relating to hazing, how to report hazing incidents, the process used to investigate hazing incidents, and information on applicable laws on hazing; and (2) information regarding the University’s hazing prevention and awareness programs.

Colleges and universities must also develop a campus hazing transparency report that summarizes findings concerning any student organization found responsible for hazing.  The campus hazing transparency report must be released by December 23, 2025, and thereafter updated at least twice a year.  However, if the institution has not experienced any incidents of hazing within the relevant reporting period, no update to the transparency report is required.

The federal Stop Campus Hazing Act defines hazing for the purpose of collecting statistics for Clery Act reporting.  It is important to understand that this definition differs from the Hazing definition found in Arizona Law (A.R.S. 13-1215, A.R.S. 15-2301), Arizona Board of Regents Policy 5-308, and Arizona State University Policy SSM 104-03.

For purposes of Clery Reporting, the Stop Campus Hazing Act definitions for hazing and student organization apply:

The term ‘hazing’ means any intentional, knowing, or reckless act committed by a person, whether individually or in concert with other persons, against a student regardless of that student’s willingness to participate, that:

1. Occurs in connection with an initiation into, affiliation with, or the maintenance of membership in a student organization (such as a club, society, association, athletic team, fraternity, sorority, or student government); and 
2. Causes or creates a risk, above the reasonable risk encountered in the course of participation in the institution or the organization, of physical injury or psychological injury including:
   1. Whipping, beating, striking, electronic shocking, placing of a harmful substance on someone’s body or similar activity;
   2. Causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing sleep deprivation, exposure to the elements, confinement in a small space, extreme calisthenics, or similar activity;
   3. Causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing another person to consume food, liquid, alcohol, drugs, or other substances;
   4. Causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing another person to perform sexual acts;
   5. Any activity that places another person in reasonable fear of bodily harm through use of threatening words or conduct;
   6. Any activity against another person that includes a criminal violation of local, State, Tribal, or Federal law; and
   7. Any activity that induces, causes, or requires another person to perform a duty or task that involves a criminal violation of local, State, Tribal, or Federal law.

For Clery reporting purposes, the term ‘student organization’ means an organization at an institution of higher education (such as a club, society, association, athletic team, club sports team, fraternity, sorority, band, or student government) in which two or more members are students enrolled at the institution of higher education regardless of whether the organization is established or recognized by the institution.