For the first time, the U.S. has enacted a federal law aimed at stopping hazing on college campuses.
The legislation, signed by President Joe Biden on Christmas Eve, requires universities that participate in federal student aid programs to disclose hazing incidents, as well as develop and distribute a comprehensive prevention program.
Known as the Stop Campus Hazing Act, the bill was championed by anti-hazing advocates, including the Roswell family of Max Gruver, 18, who died in a fraternity hazing incident at Louisiana State University in 2017.
Credit: Courtesy
Credit: Courtesy
Gruver died of alcohol poisoning at LSU’s Phi Delta Theta house. At the time of his death, Gruver had an alcohol level of 0.495% — more than six times the legal limit for drivers. One fraternity member was convicted of negligent homicide and sentenced to five years in prison in connection with the Gruver case.
Gruver’s mother, Rae Ann Gruver, believes the new law will save lives.
“It will allow students to make educated decisions about the groups they join on campus by exposing the bad actors or organizations prominently on the university’s website,” she said, in a Friday email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We did not have this information available when Max was looking at fraternities.”
The federal bill incorporated provisions from bills that were introduced but failed to pass in previous years. Sponsored by U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, a Georgia Democrat, it passed the House in September and the Senate this month.
“Our bipartisan, bicameral legislation strengthens important national standards for data collection and reporting so that students, their families and our nation can stop these horrific instances,” McBath said from the House floor in September.
Under the new law, universities must include hazing incidents in their annual security reports and identify student groups that violated the school’s anti-hazing policy. It also creates a definition for the term “hazing.”
Nearly every state has an anti-hazing law, according to advocacy group StopHazing. But those laws can vary significantly from one state to another.
In Georgia, a 2021 law named after Gruver makes hazing a misdemeanor which can result in a $5,000 fine and up to one year in jail. It also requires schools to post hazing violations on their websites for at least five years.
StopHazing called the federal law a “giant leap forward in providing more accountability and transparency both at individual institutions and nationally.”
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