Legal Alert
New Federal Law on Hazing Amends Part of the Clery Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1092(f), Requiring Policy Updates and Additional Reporting Obligations from Campuses
On December 24, 2024, President Biden signed into law the Stop Campus Hazing Act (“the Act”). The bill unanimously passed both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives. The Act went into effect January 1, 2025, and requires campuses to collect and disclose statistics on hazing incidents in their Clery Act Annual Safety Report and in a new required report, the Campus Hazing Transparency Report. Failure to comply with these new reporting requirements would be a violation of the Clery Act, which could result in significant fines assessed against the campus by the U.S. Department of Education and risking the receipt of federal funds. These changes, among others, and what they mean for the campuses, are discussed in more detail below.
I. Definitions of “Hazing” and “Student Organization”
The Act defines hazing as any intentional, knowing, or reckless act committed by a person against a student (regardless of that student’s willingness to participate), that (1) is connected with an initiation into, an affiliation with, or the maintenance of membership in, an organization (e.g., a club, athletic team, fraternity, or sorority); and (2) causes or is likely to contribute to a substantial risk, above the reasonable risk encountered in the course of participation in the institution of higher education or the organization, of physical injury, mental harm, or degradation.1 Notably, the definition encompasses conduct that is merely affiliated with a student organization, and activities related to initiation or maintaining membership within the student organization, making this definition broader than the Massachusetts definition of hazing, which only pertains to conduct relating to initiation into a student organization.
The definition of student organization in the Act makes clear that it also applies to student groups that are not formally recognized by an institution, requiring campuses to report hazing incidents that occur in connection with even student groups not established or recognized by the institution. A student organization is defined in the Act as “an organization at an institution of higher education (such as a club, society, association, varsity or junior varsity athletic team, club sports team, fraternity, sorority, band, or student government) in which two or more of the members are students enrolled at the institution of higher education, whether or not the organization is established or recognized by the institution.” Massachusetts’ hazing law, M.G.L. c. 269, §§ 17-19, already used this broader definition of student groups to include those not formally recognized by the institution, but campuses should mirror the new federal definition to ensure compliance.
II. Reporting Obligations
The Act also expands current Clery Act Annual Security Report (“ASR”) reporting requirements. In their ASRs campuses must now include hazing incidents involving both affiliated and unaffiliated student groups, as defined above, “that were reported to campus security authorities or local police agencies” and occurred within the campus’s Clery Geography.3 Campuses should continue to communicate with local police agencies about reportable incidents under the Clery Act, including hazing. To be compliant with these new ASR reporting requirements, campuses must track reports of hazing beginning January 1, 2025, for inclusion in their 2026 ASR (2025 statistics).
The Act also institutes a new form of reporting called the Campus Hazing Transparency Report (“CHTR”). The CHTR must summarize incidents in which a student organization established or formally recognized by the campus was found to have committed a hazing violation. While the ASR must include all reports of hazing by student organizations that are and are not established or recognized by the institution, the CHTR only requires reporting found violations by recognized or established student groups. The geographic scope of CHTR reporting is not limited to the Clery geography, like the ASR is. Thus, if a student organization recognized or established by the institution is found by the institution to have committed a hazing violation, a summary of that finding must be included in the CHTR regardless of where the misconduct occurred. The CHTR must be made publicly available on each campus’s website and must be updated at least two times per year going forward. The Act does not require campuses to publish or update a CHTR “until such institution has a finding of a hazing violation.” Therefore, campuses are not required to update the CHTR if there was no finding of a hazing violation for the period the reporting covers. In accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”), personally identifiable information must not be included in the CHTR. The biannual CHTR report must include the following information about each violation:
the name of the student organization involved,
a general description of the violation that resulted in a finding of responsibility, including whether the violation involved the abuse or illegal use of alcohol or drugs, the findings of the campus and any sanctions placed on the student organization by the campus, as applicable, and
the dates on which:
the alleged incident was alleged to have occurred,
the investigation into the incident was initiated,
the investigation ended with a finding that a hazing violation occurred, and
the campus provided notice to the student organization that the incident resulted in a hazing violation.
The CHTR must be published in a “prominent location” on each campus’s website and must include links to the ASR, the campus’s hazing policy, and applicable Massachusetts law (§§ 17-19) on hazing. Finally, CHTRs must be maintained for a period of five years following publication.
III. Policy and Programming Requirements
If not already in place, campuses must publish a statement regarding the campus’s current policies related to hazing, how to report incidents of hazing and the process used to investigate hazing incidents, and information on applicable Massachusetts law on hazing. Campuses should republish their policy statements once the policies have been updated. Also required by the Act is a policy statement relating to the campus’s prevention and awareness programs related to hazing.
We recommend that educational, prevention, and training programs also be reviewed for compliance with the Act. Specifically, the Act requires campuses to adopt, if they do not already exist, “research-informed campus-wide prevention programs designed to reach students, staff and faculty.” Examples may include bystander intervention, ethical leadership, and trainings that promote strategies for building group cohesion without hazing.
IV. Timeline for Compliance and OGC Recommendations
The Office of General Counsel advises campuses to conduct a review and update of their hazing policies, student handbooks or codes, prevention education, and data collection efforts to ensure compliance with the Act and to incorporate the new definitions of hazing and student organizations. If necessary, campuses should coordinate with state, local, and campus police to establish an information sharing plan about hazing incident reports for inclusion in the 2026 ASR.
Below is a timeline outlining what is required for your campus to be in compliance with the Act.
Jan. 1, 2025: Campuses must begin collecting hazing statistics to include in their 2026 ASR.
June 30, 2025: Campuses must have required, updated hazing policies in place and published.
July 1, 2025: Campuses must have in place a process for documenting violations of their hazing polices for use in their CHTR.
Dec. 23, 2025: Campuses must make publicly available the CHTR, which would document any violations that occurred on or after July 1, 2025.
Oct. 1, 2026: Campuses must include 2025 hazing statistics in their ASR for the first time.
Should you have any questions about compliance with this new law, please reach out to OGC through our portal at https://www.umassp.edu/general-counsel/request-legal-advice, and insert Legal Alert: Hazing Reporting into the subject line.