Overview

Preventing and addressing hazing is integral to the College’s commitment to providing a safe, inclusive, and respectful learning, living, and working environment for students, staff, and faculty.

The College’s Student Code of Conduct establishes expectations for all students in recognized and registered student organizations. The College’s Division of Student Development is responsible for upholding community expectations for all individual students and registered student organizations/groups and manages the student conduct system for individual students and registered student organizations or groups, including managing reports of hazing (a violation of the Code), by following the process outlined in the Student Code of Conduct Hearing Procedures. 

The College’s Staff Handbook establishes expectations for staff and faculty. The Faculty Handbook also sets forth expectations applicable to faculty members. Human Resources oversees matters concerning the conduct of staff members and faculty members.

In alignment with the Stop Campus Hazing Act, a federal law that amended the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1092(f), Kalamazoo College compiles and annually discloses statistics on hazing incidents reported to Campus Security Authorities or local police in the College’s Annual Security Report.  

What is Hazing?

Hazing is prohibited conduct under the College’s Code of Student Conduct, Staff Handbook, and Faculty Handbook and is against both state law and federal law.

• The Stop Hazing Campus Act, a federal law, defines the term hazing to mean any intentional, knowing, or reckless act committed by a person (whether individually or in concert with other persons) against another person or persons regardless of the willingness of such other person or persons to participate, that (1) is committed in the course of an initiation into, an affiliation with, or the maintenance of membership in, a student organization (e.g., a club, athletic team, fraternity, or sorority); and (2) causes or creates a risk — above the reasonable risk encountered in the course of participation in the College or the organization — of physical or psychological injury.
  • Examples of hazing conduct, include:
    • whipping, beating, striking, electronic shocking, placing of a harmful substance on someone’s body, or similar activity; 
    • causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing sleep deprivation, exposure to the elements, confinement in a small space, extreme calisthenics, or other similar activity; 
    • causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing another person to consume food, liquid, alcohol, drugs, or other substances; 
    • causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing another person to perform sexual acts; 
    • any activity that places another person in reasonable fear of bodily harm through the use of threatening words or conduct; 
    • any activity against another person that includes a criminal violation of local, State, Tribal, or Federal law; and 
    • any activity that induces, causes, or requires another person to perform a duty or task that involves a criminal violation of local, State, Tribal, or Federal law.
  • The term student organization means 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.
• Hazing under Michigan’s Garret’s Law (M.C.L. 750.411t) includes the following willful acts, with or without the consent of the individual involved: physical injury; assault or battery; kidnapping or imprisonment; physical activity that knowingly or recklessly subjects a person or persons to an unreasonable risk of physical harm or to severe mental or emotional harm; degradation, humiliation, or compromising of moral or religious values; forced consumption of any substance; placing an individual in physical danger, which includes abandonment; and undue interference with academic endeavors. Acts of hazing only include those acts which are done for the purpose of pledging, being initiated into, affiliating with, participating in, holding office in, or maintaining membership in any organization. 
• The Student Code of Conduct defines hazing as an act which endangers the mental or physical health or safety of a student or destroys or removes public or private property for the purpose of initiation, admission into, affiliation with, or as a condition for continued membership in a group or organization. The express or implied consent of the victim is not a defense. Apathy or acquiescence in the presence of hazing are violations of this rule. The Policy includes acts of hazing prohibited by state law (Garret’s Law) and federal law (STOP Hazing Campus Act).

Students, faculty, staff, and student organizations and groups are prohibited from engaging in any hazing conduct defined above.

Reporting Options

If you are being hazed, have witnessed a hazing incident, or believe a student group is engaged in hazing, please report it using the form linked below:

Harassment, Discrimination, Hazing Report Form

Education and Prevention

The College offers prevention programs intended to reach students, staff, and faculty. The programs include information about College policies, definitions of hazing under both policy and applicable law, how to report hazing, and the process used for investigating such incidents. The College seeks to offer research informed primary prevention strategies intended to stop hazing before hazing occurs, which may include skill building for bystander intervention, information about ethical leadership, and the promotion of strategies for building group cohesion without hazing.

For example, student organization leaders receive annual training concerning hazing and information about preventing hazing is posted online and accessible to all members of student organizations. Additionally, athletes annually attest to understanding hazing conduct that is prohibited by policy and law as well as consequences for violating the law. Athletes receive skill building for bystander intervention, information about ethical leadership, and the promotion of strategies for building group cohesion without hazing.

Adjudication Process

The College’s Division of Student Development is responsible for upholding community expectations for all individual students and registered student organizations/groups and manages the student conduct system for individual students and registered student organizations or groups, including managing reports of hazing (a violation of the Code), by following the process outlined in the Student Code of Conduct Hearing Procedures. 

Human Resources oversees matters concerning employee conduct.

Campus Hazing Transparency Report

As part of the College’s commitment to fostering a safe and inclusive campus, the College will publish information when there is a finding of a hazing violation. The transparency report is intended to ensure accountability, raise awareness, and prevent future harm by providing information of hazing violations on campus. For any violations, the College will publish the name of the group, team, or organization with a link to more information about the violation finding.

Academic Year 2025

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