Teke's Observe National Hazing Prevention Week
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - National Hazing Prevention Week is observed on campuses across the TKE Nation each year during the last week of September. Activities range from brown bag lunch discussions among faculty to movie or book discussions with students; training for organizational and team leaders, to the signing of anti-hazing pledges. Some plan an entire week of activities and programs and some simply plan one or two meaningful programs. Whatever you do, the important thing is to DO SOMETHING!
Utilizing a national awareness week is a great way to bring attention to the problem of hazing locally; to educate parents, faculty and staff, students, community members, local and campus police and others so they can more easily recognize hazing - and more importantly - have the skills to intervene, when hazing occurs.
The ultimate goal of these efforts, however, is to prevent hazing from happening in the first place. That goal will only be accomplished through strong educational efforts, diligent policy enforcement and comprehensive and on-going efforts on each campus and within all organizations.
What is Hazing?
Hazing is: Any action taken or situation created intentionally:
- that causes embarrassment, harassment or ridicule
- risks emotional and/or physical harm
- to members of an organization or team
- whether new or not
- regardless of the person's willingness to participate
First Step: Assessing the culture. Where does your campus stand on the hazing issue? Are there still organizations that haze without consequence? Is the campus hazing policy effective, widely shared and enforced? What type of education is already being done on campus? What additional needs are there? Which audiences are the most important to target? Do students really understand the definition above?
Audience: Many, if not all, of our programming efforts focus on those who haze, and try to get them to change their ways. This is a difficult task, and not possible to accomplish with a one hour speaker.
Bystander Responsibility: The best way to eliminate hazing is to activate the bystanders - those who are standing idly by while hazing takes place. Even students who don't actively take part in hazing, allow it to continue by not standing up against it. You may feel you are the only one who is opposed to hazing, but that is probably not the case; you are probably in the silent majority, but no one wants to be the first to speak up.
The five-step model for encouraging bystanders to intervene is:
- Notice the Event: Who is in a position to see hazing taking place or the effects of it?
- Recognize the behavior as a problem: Many people witness hazing, but think it is harmless fun or silly pranks.
- Feel responsibility to help solve the problem: If you see it and think it's wrong, do you feel it's your place to act? Why not?
- Know what to do: You may want to act, but don't know where to turn for help or what to do.
- Possess the capacity for action: Even if you know what to do, do you have the courage to do it?
Who are the Bystanders on your Campus?
- Faculty/Staff
- Campus and City Police
- RAs and Residence Life Staff
- Academic Advisors
- Students - hazing victims, student leaders, organization/team members
These are the people who are in an excellent position to see hazing or its effects on students and do something about it if they have some education on what to do. The 2008 National Hazing Prevention Week resource guide will focus entirely on the bystander model to help you plan hazing prevention programs during the week or throughout the year.
Opportunities: There are numerous educational opportunities on your campus and offered through national organizations as well. Take advantage of these, and require members to attend. Speakers, discussions, NHPW events, videos, books, online courses, workshops and even longer facilitated programs can only serve to increase knowledge and skills for dealing with the problem. Open and honest discussion among members is the best way to eliminate hazing in your organization/team.
A special resource targeted to Greek students was developed for the 2007 NHPW - it can be downloaded from the Hazing Prevention website on the NHPW page. It contains approximately 70 pages of information about hazing and how to fight it.
Learn more about Hazing Prevention and TKE Risk Management Policies by looking at the TKE web site .