First Legislation to Stop Campus Hazing Clears Congress

The U.S. Capitol building in Washington on Dec. 11, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

After years of failed attempts, the first federal legislation to combat campus hazing is poised to become law.

The bipartisan Stop Campus Hazing Act cleared the House in September and gained unanimous approval in the Senate on Wednesday. It now awaits President Joe Biden’s signature.

If signed into law, the bill will require colleges and universities to include all hazing incidents in their annual crime report submitted to the federal government. The institutions must also implement programs to educate students about the dangers and consequences of hazing.

Another key feature of the legislation is a transparency mandate, which requires schools to publish on their website the names of on-campus organizations with a history of hazing incidents. This marks the first time college students and families will have access to detailed information about hazing activities on their campuses.

“This bill empowers students and their families to make informed decisions about the schools they attend and the organizations they join. That information could be life-saving,” said Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.), who co-sponsored the House version of the bill.

At least one hazing-related death has occurred on an American college campus every year from 1959 to 2021, according to a tracker maintained by Hank Nuwer, an independent journalist who has studied hazing for the last four decades.

The circumstances of some of those tragedies are still shrouded in mystery. One such case is the 2014 death of 19-year-old Tucker Hipps, a Clemson University sophomore and fraternity pledge whose body was found floating under a bridge. No one has ever come forward with information about what happened to Tucker, nor has anyone been arrested or charged in his death, although his parents believe he fell to his death after being forced to walk the bridge railing as punishment.

“With the Stop Campus Hazing Act passing in the Senate, we’re one step closer to saving lives like Tucker Hipps and other students tragically killed in suspected incidents of campus hazing,” said Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), who co-led the bill in the House. “I applaud my colleagues as we honor Tucker’s memory.”

The bill has the support of the families of numerous hazing victims. Among them are Julie and Gary DeVercelly, whose 18-year-old son, Gary Jr., died in 2007 from acute alcohol poisoning during a fraternity hazing ritual at Rider University. The DeVercellys have since become advocates for campus hazing reform.

“We set out to make sure what happened to our son never happened again,” the DeVercellys said in a statement from the Clery Center, a campus safety advocacy organization that supported the bill.

“This bill will save lives and make a real difference in the fight against hazing.”

Greek life organizations, including the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) and the North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC), have also endorsed the legislation, pledging to move toward greater transparency and accountability.

The Stop Campus Hazing Act is not the first attempt to tackle campus hazing at the federal level. In 2021, McBath joined Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) in reintroducing the 2019 Report and Educate About Campus Hazing (REACH) Act in both chambers of Congress. Like its predecessor, the REACH Act failed to advance out of committee.

Forty-four states and the District of Columbia have anti-hazing laws. However, the specifics of these laws—such as who is protected, who can be held accountable, and which behaviors are prohibited—vary significantly across jurisdictions.

Prior to Wednesday’s vote, Congress banned hazing at the U.S. Naval Academy and directed the superintendents of the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) and the U.S. Air Force Academy to implement rules preventing the practice.