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Key takeaways
- The Stop Campus Hazing Act, passed by the U.S. Senate on December 11, 2024, will impose extensive new requirements on higher education institutions to prevent, address, and report hazing incidents.
- Hazing is defined as acts causing physical or psychological injury during initiation, affiliation, or maintenance of membership in a student organization, which includes any group with two or more members enrolled at the institution, regardless of official recognition by the institution.
- If Biden signs the Act into law this year, starting January 1, 2025, institutions must begin collecting and retaining data on reported hazing incidents for inclusion in their 2025 Clery Report, due by October 1, 2026.
On December 11, 2024, the U.S. Senate passed the Stop Campus Hazing Act, which provides new requirements for higher education institutions regarding preventing, addressing and reporting hazing on campus. President Biden is expected to sign the bill into law before the end of his term.
While many institutions already work hard to prevent and address hazing, they will likely need to review and revise their policies and practices in response to the Act’s new reporting requirements, as well as the Act’s expansive definitions of “hazing” and “student organization.”
The Act amends the Clery Act to add a definition of hazing, which includes actions that cause (or risk causing) physical or psychological injury performed during the “initiation into, affiliation with, or the maintenance of membership in, a student organization.” The organization need not be recognized by the institution – instead, it must have two or more members who are enrolled at the institution.
Institutions will need to work quickly to ensure they update their policies for reporting, investigating and addressing hazing (assuming Biden signs the bill in 2024) because:
- Beginning on January 1, 2025, institutions will need to begin collecting and retaining data on reported hazing incidents to be included in their 2025 Clery Report (which will include incidents from calendar year 2025 and must be published by October 1, 2026).
- By six months after the enactment of the act (which will occur when President Biden signs it unless otherwise specified), each institution will be required:
- To publish a statement of current policies related to reporting and investigating hazing incidents.
- To publish a statement of policy regarding prevention and awareness programs related to hazing for students, staff and faculty.
- While the Act allows institutions to provide definitions of “hazing” in policies and prevention programs that differ from the Act’s definition, institutions that choose a different definition must consider how that definition would impact their ability to track and report instances of hazing in order to comply with the Act.
- By one year after the enactment of the act, each institution must publish a new report, a “Campus Hazing Transparency Report” twice a year that discloses each incident for which a finding of responsibility for hazing was issued against a student organization that is officially recognized by the institution.
- This report must identify the student organization and describe the incident, including the date of the incident, the timeline of the investigation and confirmation that the institution provided notice to the organization of its finding of a hazing violation.
- The institution must not, however, include any personally identifying information about any individual student.
- Each of these reports must remain publicly available on the institution’s website for five calendar years from its publication.
- This report must identify the student organization and describe the incident, including the date of the incident, the timeline of the investigation and confirmation that the institution provided notice to the organization of its finding of a hazing violation.
Institutions will therefore need to take quick action, in consultation with counsel, to review their existing policies, practices, and prevention processes alongside the Act to be ready to add hazing reports to their 2025 Clery reports and build out hazing prevention and response programs that are compliant with these new requirements.
Client Alert 2024-245