Hazing

Hazing is prohibited by the College and is subject to the College rules on disciplinary proceedings.  Hazing is defined as any activity expected of someone joining or participating in a group that humiliates, intimidates, demeans, abuses or endangers them regardless of a person’s willingness to participate.  Hazing also includes soliciting, directing, aiding, or otherwise participating actively or passively in the above acts.

Due to the socially coercive nature of hazing, the College looks beyond implied or expressed consent to acts of hazing.  

Examples of Hazing Include, but are not limited to:

  • Any activity that would be viewed by a reasonable person as subjecting any person to embarrassment, degradation or humiliation
  • Assigning unreasonable chores or acts of servitude, particularly to new members of the group
  • Assigning or endorsing “pranks” such as stealing or harassing other individuals or groups.
  • Blindfolding
  • Causing excessive exercise, sleep deprivation, or excessive fatigue
  • Encouraging the use of alcohol or illegal drugs
  • Engaging in activities that compel an individual or group to remain at a certain place, or transporting anyone anywhere without their knowledge and/or consent (road trips, kidnaps, etc.)
  • Engaging in or simulating sexual acts
  • Forcing or coercing consumption or use of any substance
  • Interfering with adequate time for study
  • Inviting new members to play high risk drinking games (particularly where new members play out the games that older members facilitate, but do not participate in themselves)
  • Nudity
  • Requiring the wearing of apparel or acting in a way that is conspicuous and not within community norms
  • Shaving, tattooing, piercing or branding
  • Threatening or causing physical restraint
  • Throwing substances or objects at individuals

Ask yourself the following questions to help determine if an activity is hazing

  • Is alcohol involved?
  • Will current members of the group refuse to participate with the new members and do exactly what they’re being asked to do?
  • Does the activity risk emotional or physical abuse?
  • Is there a risk of injury or a question of safety?
  • Do you have any reservations describing the activity to your parents, a professor, your coach the AD, a Dean?
  • What would happen if picture of the event surfaced?

  • Below are the sections of chapter 269 of the Massachusetts General Laws that define hazing and that impose penalties for hazing violations:

    Section 17. Whoever is a principal organizer or participant in the crime of hazing, as defined herein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than three thousand dollars or by imprisonment in a house of correction for not more than one year, or both such fine and imprisonment.

    The term “hazing” as used in this section and in sections eighteen and nineteen, shall mean any conduct or method of initiation into any student organization, whether on public or private property, which willfully or recklessly endangers the physical or mental health of any student or other person. Such conduct shall include whipping, beating, branding, forced calisthenics, exposure to the weather, forced consumption of any food, liquor, beverage, drug or other substance, or any other brutal treatment or forced physical activity which is likely to adversely affect the physical health or safety of any such student or other person, or which subjects such student or other person to extreme mental stress, including extended deprivation of sleep or rest or extended isolation.

    Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section to the contrary, consent shall not be available as a defense to any prosecution under this action.

    Section 18. Whoever knows that another person is the victim of hazing as defined in section seventeen and is at the scene of such crime shall, to the extent that such person can do so without danger or peril to himself or others, report such crime to an appropriate law enforcement official as soon as reasonably practicable. Whoever fails to report such crime shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars.

    Section 19. Each institution of secondary education and each public and private institution of post secondary education shall issue to every student group, student team or student organization which is part of such institution or is recognized by the institution or permitted by the institution to use its name or facilities or is known by the institution to exist as an unaffiliated student group, student team or student organization, a copy of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen; provided, however, that an institution’s compliance with this section’s requirements that an institution issue copies of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen to unaffiliated student groups, teams or organizations shall not constitute evidence of the institution’s recognition or endorsement of said unaffiliated student groups, teams or organizations.

    Each such group, team or organization shall distribute a copy of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen to each of its members, plebes, pledges or applicants for membership. It shall be the duty of each such group, team or organization, acting through its designated officer, to deliver annually, to the institution an attested acknowledgement stating that such group, team or organization has received a copy of this section and said sections seventeen and eighteen, that each of its members, plebes, pledges, or applicants has received a copy of sections seventeen and eighteen, and that such group, team or organization understands and agrees to comply with the provisions of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen.

    Each institution of secondary education and each public or private institution of post secondary education shall, at least annually, before or at the start of enrollment, deliver to each person who enrolls as a full time student in such institution a copy of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen.

    Each institution of secondary education and each public or private institution of post secondary education shall file, at least annually, a report with the board of higher education and in the case of secondary institutions, the board of education, certifying that such institution has complied with its responsibility to inform student groups, teams or organizations and to notify each full time student enrolled by it of the provisions of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen and also certifying that said institution has adopted a disciplinary policy with regard to the organizers and participants of hazing, and that such policy has been set forth with appropriate emphasis in the student handbook or similar means of communicating the institution’s policies to its students. The board of higher education and, in the case of secondary institutions, the board of education shall promulgate regulations governing the content and frequency of such reports, and shall forthwith report to the attorney general any such institution which fails to make such report.