Hazing is a big deal on college campuses and most institutions of higher education take it very seriously. The majority of schools strictly prohibit hazing and impose harsh sanctions on students and organizations that engage in it. Most states in the U.S. also have anti-hazing laws that criminalize any hazing behavior.
Although it doesn't get as much attention as hazing, bullying is a big deal at colleges and universities too. The focus on bullying tends to target K-12 schools, but bullying is just as prevalent among college students, academic faculty, and college staff members. Some schools prohibit bullying in their student codes of conduct, and some include bullying in their anti-harassment policies.
As a college student, it's important to know what kinds of conduct can get you in trouble. Hazing and bullying are both serious offenses, and you should understand how schools define them and what the difference is between them. At the Lento Law Firm, we help defend students who have been accused of wrongdoing by their colleges and universities, including for hazing and bullying offenses. If you're going through a disciplinary process at your school for either one, call our offices at 888-535-3686. You can also send us your information via our confidential contact form.
How Do Colleges and Universities Define Hazing?
Most colleges and universities in the U.S., public and private, have a policy against hazing. This policy usually defines hazing, gives examples, and states penalties for students or organizations found responsible for hazing violations.
At the University of Central Florida, for example, hazing is any action or situation that recklessly or intentionally endangers the mental or physical health and/or safety of a student for initiation or admission into or association or affiliation with any registered student organization. The policy provides some examples of hazing: whipping, beating, branding, forced calisthenics, exposure to the elements, forced consumption of food, liquor, or other substances, etc. The policy also states that consenting to hazing is not an adequate defense for hazing.
Another large U.S. university, Texas A&M, strictly prohibits hazing. The university defines hazing as any act that endangers the mental or physical health or safety of a student or that destroys or removes public or private property. It's also assisting, directing, or in any way causing others to participate in degrading behavior or behavior that causes ridicule, humiliation, or embarrassment or engaging in conduct that tends to bring the reputation of the organization, group, or university into disrepute. Hazing is directly related to initiation, admission into, affiliation with, or as a condition of joining a group or organization.
Ohio State University uses the state hazing law to define hazing but also adds further to it in its hazing policy. Hazing is doing, requiring, or encouraging any act, whether or not the act is voluntarily agreed upon, tied to initiation, continued membership, or participation in any group, that causes or creates a substantial risk of causing mental or physical harm or humiliation. Some examples of the hazing policy are creating excessive fatigue, using alcohol, paddling, punching, or kicking.
These three policies are just a few examples from the nation's biggest universities, but you can expect most institutions of higher education to have similar hazing definitions. It's usually behavior associated with initiation into a student organization and includes both physical and mental health and safety. At most schools, these policies apply to both individual students and organizations or groups registered on campus.
If you're concerned about hazing at your college or university, you should track down your school's hazing policy. You can usually find it through a simple search on the school's website. You can also probably get a copy from your office about student engagement, Greek life, or the equivalent. If you've been accused of hazing, it helps to know exactly what definition your school uses and what the potential consequences will be.
How Do Colleges and Universities Define Bullying
Bullying generally receives more attention at the K-12 level than at the higher education level. However, it's common in colleges and universities too. Bullying can include a wide range of behaviors, including harassment and stalking—and even hazing can be considered a type of bullying. Cyberbullying is also prevalent at colleges and universities.
Higher education institutions are generally not required to have anti-bullying policies. However, in many states, colleges and universities must make student behavior policies concerning harassment and hazing, which can be considered forms of bullying. Student codes of conduct usually encourage students to exhibit appropriate behavior at all times, including respect for fellow students, faculty, and staff.
Some common examples of bullying on college campuses include:
- Cyberbullying: Cyberbullying takes place online, usually on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. It can include sending abusive or harassing messages to a victim directly or posting humiliating content about a victim.
- Physical bullying: Physical contact or physical intimidation are both forms of physical bullying. Repeatedly pushing or shoving can be physical bullying, but so can threatening to physically assault someone, brandishing a weapon, or physically blocking access to a room or area.
- Gender-based bullying: Gender-based bullying can be any verbal comments, insults, threats, or physical contact that makes the victim feel embarrassed or uncomfortable. Usually, that person is targeted because of their sexuality or gender. If the bullying is serious and pervasive enough, it could be sexual harassment or sexual assault.
- Verbal bullying: Making comments, insults, or threats that reflect an imbalance of power is considered verbal bullying. It can take other forms as well, including threatening physical harm or making race-based or gender-based discriminatory comments.
Wayne State University has an anti-bullying statement issued by the provost. It states that bullying is any written, verbal, or physical act or electronic communication directed toward a person that's intended to cause harm or substantial emotional distress. Bullying also disrupts a person's ability to participate in or benefit from university programs and activities.
Harvard University issued a Non-Discrimination and Anti-Bullying Policy in 2023, which defines bullying as hostile and abusive behavior or power-based harassment. It's harmful interpersonal aggression by words or actions that humiliate, degrade, demean, intimidate, or threaten an individual or individuals. Bullying is only a violation of the policy if it's sufficiently severe or pervasive and objectively offensive enough that it creates a work, educational, or living environment that a reasonable person would consider hostile, abusive, or intimidating. It must also interfere with an individual's equal opportunity to participate in the benefits of the workplace or the institution's programs and activities.
Columbia University launched an Anti-Bullying Working Group in 2021 and proposed a definition of bullying that will likely be approved as an official university sometime after 2023. Under this definition, bullying would be considered a pattern of unwelcome conduct that a reasonable person would find hostile, offensive, intimidating, disrespectful, degrading, or humiliating. The policy would consider “bullying” and “abusive conduct” as the same offense.
You won't find university anti-bullying statements as easily as anti-hazing statements, but many institutions are realizing the prevalence of bullying on campus and starting to create new policies. Bullying is generally behavior that is similar to harassment, although the definition of bullying tends to be a bit broader. For most schools, bullying becomes a problem when it interferes with a student's, faculty member's, or staff member's ability to participate in university programs and activities.
Legal Definitions of Hazing and Bullying
In the last several years, many states have started outlawing hazing. Students who haze in these states not only come up against their school's sanctions, but they could also face criminal penalties.
Some anti-hazing laws also place a requirement on institutions of higher education, obliging them to adopt anti-hazing policies of their own. These laws usually also state that either individuals or student organizations can be found guilty of hazing.
In Pennsylvania, for example, hazing is illegal. The legal definition provides several examples of hazing, including being forced to consume food, alcoholic beverages, and drugs or enduring physical, mental, or sexual brutality for the purposes of initiation into or affiliation with a student organization. The law also defines aggravated hazing, organizational hazing, and institutional hazing. Pennsylvania also includes mental brutality in its definition of hazing—some states don't mention mental safety and well-being in their anti-hazing law.
California has an anti-hazing law known as “Matt's Law” which makes hazing a crime. It defines hazing as any conduct that is likely to cause serious bodily injury and is used as a method of initiation or preinitiation into a student organization. The California law also doesn't mention mental well-being.
Texas has a much more robust legal definition of hazing compared to New York and California. It provides several examples of what may be considered hazing, including physical brutality, sleep deprivation, exposure to the elements, forced consumption of food, alcohol, or drugs, and so on. The law states that consent to hazing is not an adequate defense, and the perpetrators can still be found guilty of hazing. Entire organizations can also be found guilty of committing hazing.
Anti-Bullying Laws
States also have anti-bullying laws, which are usually part of the state's education code. These laws don't necessarily make bullying a crime, but they do require public school districts to implement anti-bullying programs and assess the prevalence of bullying among its pupils. Generally, anti-bullying laws apply to K-12 education rather than higher education, but colleges and universities still take bullying on campus very seriously. Some even model their anti-bullying policies after state laws.
For example, Florida has a state anti-bullying law that prohibits bullying and harassment of any K-12 public student or employee. The includes examples of bullying, such as teasing, social exclusion, threat, intimidation, physical violence, stalking, theft, destruction of property, etc. Since this law applies specifically to K-12 schools, colleges and universities are free to make their own anti-bullying statements and policies. The University of Florida prohibits bullying in its Workplace Violence policy and considers it threatening and disruptive conduct, for example.
New York has a law called “Dignity for All Students,” which prohibits bullying and harassment. The law provides the same definition for both bullying and harassment, calling it the creation of a hostile environment by conduct, threats, intimidation, or abuse that interferes with a student's education performance, reasonably causes the student to fear for their safety, and is reasonably expected to cause physical injury or emotional harm. Bullying that happens off school property can be considered bullying under New York law if the behavior creates a substantial link to the school environment. The Dignity for All Students Act only offers protection to elementary and secondary school students, but many higher education institutions in the state have implemented similar policies for their students. New York University has a non-discrimination and anti-harassment policy that prohibits unwelcome verbal or physical conduct based on race, sex, gender, gender identity, color, religion, creed, age, national origin, ethnicity, disability, veteran or military status, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, citizenship status, or genetic information.
If you get accused of either hazing or bullying at your university, you shouldn't try to handle the charges on your own. You may not be familiar with your school's disciplinary process, and the university may opt for taking stricter action than what's necessary to make an example of you. The Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team won't let that happen. We can help you defend your rights as an accused student and ensure you get a fair disciplinary hearing.
Is There an Overlap Between Hazing and Bullying?
Yes, there is generally an overlap between hazing and bullying, especially at the college level. Keep in mind that most states have both anti-hazing and anti-bullying laws, though anti-hazing laws usually target higher education, and anti-bullying laws target K-12 schools. Colleges and universities, therefore, try to work within the legal framework of the state in which they operate and create policies that draw on these laws.
Some schools take a broad definition of bullying (if they have a definition at all) and group hazing under it. Other schools consider hazing and bullying separate and might group bullying together with harassment and discrimination.
As a college student, you generally won't be charged with both hazing and bullying for the same offense; the school will charge you with one or the other. Depending on how your college or university defines hazing and bullying, the penalties for each might be equally as severe. Your school is more likely to turn your case over to law enforcement for hazing rather than for bullying, though.
When it comes to the disciplinary process for hazing and bullying accusations, it depends again on how your school classifies each offense. The process for hazing is probably the school's standard student disciplinary procedure, which is used for all general code of conduct violations. Your college or university might use the standard procedure for bullying as well, or there might be a separate one. If bullying is defined in the same way as harassment at your school, there's a possibility that it crosses into Title IX territory. If that happens, there may be an entirely different, Title IX-specific disciplinary process.
Potential Sanctions for Hazing
Schools that prohibit hazing in their codes of conduct usually have strict penalties for students found responsible for a violation. These potential sanctions are usually found in the university code of conduct or student handbook.
At the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, hazing is listed as a prohibited behavior in the Student Conduct Code. Students may have to face sanctions, or what the university calls “outcomes” for hazing, such as:
- Warning
- Probation
- Required compliance
- Confiscation
- Restitution
- Restriction of privileges
- University housing suspension
- University housing expulsion
- Suspension
- Expulsion
- Withholding of diploma or degree
- Revocation of admission or degree
The Student Conduct Code also states that several factors are considered when choosing an outcome. Some of these factors are the nature and severity of the offense, the culpability of the student or student group, the impact on other students or members of the University community, and the opportunity for student development. The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities considers suspension and expulsion very serious penalties and only considers them for repeat violations, serious scholastic dishonesty, or misconduct that constitutes a threat to community safety and well-being. Most of the time, hazing can be considered conduct that “threatens community safety and well-being,” so students may likely be suspended or expelled for engaging in it.
Hazing is also listed as conduct subject to discipline in the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Student Rules of Conduct. The potential sanctions listed for this kind of misconduct are:
- Dismissal
- Suspension
- Conduct probation
- Censure
- Reprimand
- Withholding academic privileges
- Withholding a degree
Rutgers University also makes hazing a violation of its Code of Student Conduct. Students can get in trouble for committing, attempting to commit, or assisting others in committing a hazing violation. There are “inactive” and “active” sanctions for students found responsible for a hazing violation at Rutgers. Inactive sanctions include:
- Reprimand
- Probation without conditions
- Probation with conditions
- Disciplinary term suspension
- Disciplinary conditional suspension
- Expulsion
- Loss of university housing
Active sanctions are:
- Restitution
- Fines
- Service hours
- Nontraditional conflict resolution
- Educational sanction
When deciding on a sanction, the university considers the nature of the offense, the precedent established by previous sanctions, the previous disciplinary history of the student, aggravating or mitigating circumstances, the developmental needs of the student, and the safety and well-being of the community.
As you can see, colleges and universities tend to have similar punishments for students accused of hazing. Even if the hazing incident wasn't considered “serious,” your school officials will probably still treat it as a grave offense, given how controversial hazing is. If you're accused of hazing at your school, the Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team can help you stand up for yourself and assist you with the disciplinary process.
Potential Sanctions for Bullying
It's far less common for universities to include bullying in their student codes of conduct, but some do. The potential sanctions for bullying tend to be less severe than those for hazing, but a bullying or harassment violation can still land you in a great deal of trouble at your university.
The University of Michigan considers harassment and bullying a violation of its Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities. The potential sanctions for bullying include:
- Formal reprimand
- Disciplinary probation
- Restitution
- Restriction from employment at the university
- Class or workshop attendance
- Educational reflection, project, or meeting
- Service
- University housing transfer, restriction, or removal
- Removal from a specific course or activities
- No contact order
- Suspension
- Expulsion
If your school considers bullying and harassment as the same violation, then you may be punished according to the school's harassment and discrimination policy. The typical penalties for a violation of this severity are probation, restriction of privileges, or a no-contact order with a specific person. More serious cases could lead to harsher penalties, however.
The Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team Can Help if You're Accused of Hazing or Bullying
A hazing or bullying violation on your record has long-term consequences—beyond just probation or suspension from school. Even if you don't get kicked out of school for the offense, you could be suspended for a semester and struggle to stay on track toward your degree. Dealing with a disciplinary procedure could cut into your study time, prevent you from showing up to your part-time job, and generally interfere with your already busy life.
At the Lento Law Firm, we help accused students defend themselves against misconduct charges like hazing and bullying. We advise you on how to proceed at meetings and hearings with university officials, help you prepare arguments in your favor, and even stand by your side at live hearings. We can help you negotiate with your school's officials for a lesser sanction and even pursue further legal action if necessary.
If you want to protect the investment you've made in your college education and keep your future safe, call the Lento Law Firm at 888-535-3686 or fill out our contact form with your information.
