By Abigail Funk

Abigail Funk is an Assistant Editor at Athletic Management. She can be reached at: afunk@MomentumMedia.com.

It's easy to assume hazing is not an issue at your school--until something very wrong happens. At Robertson High School in Las Vegas, N.M., a football hazing scandal allegedly involving sodomy and other sexual acts rocked the community late last year. Curry College and Arizona State University both canceled their men's lacrosse seasons this past spring after evidence of hazing surfaced. And women's soocer players at Millersville University and Northwestern University were suspended in recent years after photographs ofhazing activities on their teams appeared on the Internet.

These incidents, however, are only the tip of the iceberg. A new major study from University of Maine Professors Elizabeth Allan and Mary Madden found that more than 70 percent of college students had been hazed in order to join or maintain their status on an athletic team. Almost half of the college students surveyed first experienced hazing as a member of an athletic team in high school.

"If we're still having a conversation about whether we have a hazing problem, we're in denial," says Adam Goldstein, Associate Dean of Students at Florida State University, who created a hazing prevention Web site at the school in 2006. "Many people in athletics want to think their teams know better and wouldn't haze, but the research is in our faces.

"Admitting that we have a problem may be the toughest barrier to cross," Goldstein continues. "The study showed college athletes were hazing at the highest rate, even higher than fraternity and sorority members. And it often started before they came to campus. The information is telling us there's a problem, and we need to address it."

But how to address hazing is what has many athletic administrators on pause. Experts say that if you have a hazing policy, you've taken a good first step, but you can't stop there. Ongoing prevention efforts aimed not just at your athletes, but also your coaching staff, are necessary. Offering alternative, safe activities is a great way to deter hazing, too. And understanding the dynamics involved in hazing behavior yourself, along with being able to spot it, is paramount.

LATEST RESEARCH
The first part of the study, "Hazing in View: College Students at Risk," was published by Allan and Madden in 2008, after they surveyed more than 11,000 students at 53 colleges and universities in 2007. Those responding included intercollegiate athletes as well as members of fraternities and sororities, club and intramural teams, and academic organizations.

"By a slim margin over students involved in Greek life, athletics was the area in which students experienced hazing most," says Madden, Associate Professor in Maine's College of Education and Human Development. "That indicates athletics has a big spirit of influence and a big role to play in hazing prevention."

In asking students when they were first hazed, the researchers expected most to say their freshman year on a college campus. But to their surprise, almost half said it was in high school. The finding prompted Allan and Madden to expand their research and send out a second round of surveys, asking the same group for more information about their high school hazing experiences, the results of which were released earlier this year.

Again, athletics was the area hazing was most commonly seen in--47 percent of the respondents indicated they were hazed as a member of a high school sports team. The statistic suggests that little has changed since the last major high school hazing study, which was published by Alfred University researchers Nadine Hoover and Norm Pollard in 2000. That survey found 48 percent of the high school students surveyed were hazed.

Allan and Madden also interviewed college athletic administrators as part of their research. "We learned that, in terms of importance, hazing didn't rise near the top for many of them," Madden says. "In their minds, if no one got hurt, then nothing too risky must have happened. This attitude may be contributing to the problem."

Another major finding of the Maine study is that a large number of students do not understand exactly what constitutes hazing. When asked whether they participated in specific activities that researchers classified as hazing, about 55 percent of students answered yes to at least one. However, when asked if they had been hazed, nine out of 10 said no. "And that's after being given the definition," says Allan, also an Associate Professor in Maine's College of Education and Human Development.

DEFINING HAZING
Allan and Madden used the following definition when collecting survey data: "Hazing is any activity expected of someone joining or participating in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers them regardless of a person's willingness to participate." Pollard, now Dean of Students at Alfred, says the most important part of that definition--and the most overlooked by student-athletes--is "regardless of a person's willingness to participate."

"When you were 13 years old, it was the worst feeling to be on the outs," he says. "That desire to be a part of something is cultural. And we, as parents and administrators, also want our students to belong to groups. There is a lot of pressure to be part of something, so students are going to be 'willing to participate' in almost anything."

Geri Knortz, Director of Athletics at Saint Michael's College, believes this remains true even after athletes arrive on a college campus. "Not only are student-athletes saying hazing is okay, they're actually asking to be hazed," she says. "They're desperate to be accepted, they want to feel they belong, and since that's how they proved their loyalty in high school, why shouldn't they do it in college, too?"

"After it's over, they feel like they accomplished something," Goldstein adds. "They feel more a part of the group, which for them is a positive."

The Maine study also found a reluctance to label a behavior as hazing unless someone was physically harmed. "There was a tendency among most everyone we spoke with--students and administrators alike--to see hazing on a continuum," Allan says. "They talked about low-level hazing, with students more likely to intervene or vocally oppose the hazing only when it reached a higher level.

"There needs to be more awareness about the connection between low-level hazing and the high risks associated with it," Allan continues. "People ask: What's the big deal if it's all in good fun, it's just some antics, and everyone has a good time? The problem is that the low-level incidents set the stage for power dynamics to be in place and normalized as part of the group setting. It has a slippery slope effect--it's likely the low-level behaviors will turn into high risk activities over time."

"It's a natural progression," Pollard says. "Sophomores want their pound of flesh because they went through it when they were freshmen. So they try to ratchet it up a notch by making it a little more dangerous and a little more humiliating. And it grows from there."

But low-level hazing can also be very damaging on its own. Even when there is no physical harm, some students find it extremely painful psychologically. Pollard points out that the Alfred study found 13 percent of hazed students left the group because of the incident.

"That scares me," he says. "There are kids who maybe had a chance to go to college on an athletic scholarship, and they're quitting the team because of an extremely embarrassing, emotionally scarring incident. Unfortunately, I've seen the consequences of hazing. It just tears apart trust within the community."

PREVENTION THAT WORKS
So what can you do? The consensus among our experts is that prevention must involve a concerted, strategic plan. "Many efforts--in college as well as high school--involve bringing in a speaker and making the kids sit through an hour-long speech," Pollard says. "But that's not really beneficial."

Creating an anti-hazing policy with tough consequences for being involved in an incident is a great start. But simply distributing the policy and holding a brief discussion doesn't tend to have lasting power. Allan and Madden say a typical comment from college athletes was that they thought they signed something about hazing along with other forms during preseason meetings, but they weren't quite sure.

"We're talking about making a culture shift," Allan says. "Hazing has been normalized as part of the culture of athletics. So yes, you need to have a policy and you need to do the PowerPoint presentation, but you also need to have sustained conversations with athletes."

Madden suggests a preseason coach-led team meeting that allows for discussion time. "You have to do more than give them a straight definition," she says. "There needs to be an opportunity for athletes to ask, 'How about this specific type of incident? Is this hazing?'"

What if team members don't ask any questions? "Coaches have a responsibility to push the discussion," Goldstein says. "They can ask their athletes, 'What does hazing look like in the context of our sport?' They can hold up the school policy and say, 'Okay, in your experience, does this happen on our team? What does it look like?' They also need to explain their own expectations for the team and make sure their athletes understand them."

Along with discussion, role playing can be meaningful for student-athletes. "Have your players watch or act out scenarios demonstrating ways to intervene in a hazing incident," Allan says. "High school students especially don't understand the power dynamics and coercion involved in hazing. Role playing can bring that out."

At Saint Michael's, Knortz requires each of her coaches to have sit-down meetings with their teams about hazing, and then addresses the issue herself in preseason gatherings. "I go eyeball to eyeball with students to say that we have a zero tolerance policy and that we take hazing very seriously," she says. "I explain how hazing can affect their program if they're caught, and I place added responsibility on the team captains.

"I make sure to say that all of our athletic administrators are available any time to address any questions or concerns students might have about hazing," she continues. "And finally, I tell them what our president has said about the issue: Anyone found to be involved in hazing will be packing their bags and off campus within 24 hours. All of this relays to our student-athletes how serious hazing is."

Another prevention strategy is to have your coaches schedule alternative activities for their athletes to do as a team. "Ropes courses or other adventure activities are great options," Allan says. "Choose things that involve risk, challenge, and bonding, which are all needs students are trying to fill through hazing activities."

"Most rites of passage and initiations kids come up with have some ceremonial aspect to them," Pollard adds. "There are some really nice opportunities to keep that dynamic, like a team dinner or a program to reward your athletes' proficiency in a certain area. The goal is to acknowledge that being a part of this team is a really powerful experience and we're going to honor that."

One more idea is to ask team leaders to step up to the plate. "For example, all the team captains could come together to make an anti-hazing pledge and have their photo taken, then post it on their team Facebook pages," Allan says. "You could even post video of student-athletes saying, 'No, I will not participate in hazing and here's why.'"

COACH SPEAK
A major aspect to making any prevention efforts work is getting your coaches on board. The Maine study revealed that 25 percent of coaches or student organization advisors were aware of their team's or group's hazing behaviors.

"The biggest motivator for coaches is having a good season, so if they see the potential hazing has to impact their team in a negative way, hazing prevention is something they'll invest in," Knortz says. "I tell coaches that discussing hazing with their team is always time well spent. We talk about how it can completely blow up a season if team members don't clearly understand behavior expectations and the possible consequences."

It's also important that coaches fully grasp how certain traditions promote hazing. "One longtime athlete belief is that new team members must earn their place," Goldstein says. "Coaches need to take on negative traditions like that directly, or they're continuing to support a landscape of hazing.

"Ask coaches to put out a counter message," he continues. "They can point to that tradition and say, 'That's not okay. The only people who determine if an athlete has a spot on this team is the coaching staff. Your job is to support each other so you can become a better team.'"

When talking to his coaches about hazing, Page Cotton, Athletic Director at DePauw University, uses his own coaching experience as an example. "I didn't address hazing for a long time when I was coaching," says Cotton, who served as DePauw's Head Men's Soccer Coach for almost 40 years until 2007. "But when hazing came into the spotlight, I realized that my tradition of having the first-year players move the soccer goals was a form of hazing. I, as the coach, was hazing our freshmen.

"So from then on, everyone helped to move the goals," Cotton continues. "That's a very small thing a coach can do, but addressing those little things can be helpful. Anything that singles out a group is hazing, and we as adults need to get that concept through our heads."

To ensure coaches buy into hazing prevention, Allan suggests athletic directors include the topic in coaching job interviews and annual evaluations. "Evaluating coaches on their hazing prevention education just like you evaluate their team's academic performance has the potential to be very effective," she says.

RED FLAGS
A final step is to be on the lookout for any hazing activities and prepared to intervene immediately. "If you see your football team's rookies standing on top of a table in the cafeteria singing 'I'm a Little Teacup,' that is a major red flag," Pollard says. "If they're doing humiliating things in public, they're most likely doing more dangerous things in private."

There are also more subtle signs to be aware of. "If athletes are really dragging and looking hung over at practice, that's a clue something could be going on," Pollard says. "Encourage your coaches to come to you if they see things like this happening."

Especially at the high school level, coaches need to understand how proper supervision can prevent hazing. "You need to be conscious of when these activities could possibly occur," Pollard explains. "Is there supervision in the locker room and on the bus to and from games?"

Madden says a lot of hazing incidents occur right under the watchful eye of athletic administrators, coaches, or community members. She encourages athletic directors to take a step back and think about any public traditions that may fit the definition of hazing.
"One example is male swimmers having their heads shaved in front of the whole school before a meet," she says. "That activity constitutes hazing, yet it's being done in the open. If adults do not intervene then, why would an adolescent think there's anything wrong with it?"

The good news, though, is that more and more people are understanding the dangers of hazing. "I think hazing is really coming out of the shadows," Pollard says. "For so long, the only way people came forward about an incident was if someone was injured or arrested. Now--through a lot of hard work--the issue is more in the forefront of peoples' minds, and hopefully, that will make a difference."


Sidebar: WITH OTHERS
Because hazing affects groups outside of athletics, it can be beneficial to work with other organizations to form campus-wide hazing prevention initiatives. A hazing prevention Web site at Florida State University, for example, includes representatives from five different campus constituencies, including intercollegiate athletics, fraternities and sororities, club teams, academic organizations, and parents and families.

"One of the things that can make hazing prevention a challenge is that sometimes athletics isolates itself from the rest of the community," says Adam Goldstein, Associate Dean of Students at Florida State. "If we can recognize that hazing is rooted in the student experience as a whole and not just athletics, we can get the support and involvement of other people in our communities.

"Don't try to do this alone," he continues. "You're more likely to effectively address the issue if you work with others."

Mary Madden, Associate Professor in the University of Maine's College of Education and Human Development, and co-author of the study, "Hazing in View: College Students at Risk," agrees. "You can't disconnect the hazing that happens on an athletic team from the hazing that happens to a new student at school," she says. "Take class hazing, for example. It's very common in high school for the senior class to haze the freshman class, and if it's allowed in one place, why not in another?"

That's why when DePauw University student organization leaders formed a campus-wide anti-hazing task force in 2007, Athletic Director Page Cotton took it upon himself to join. "I've always felt that if a group is meeting to discuss something like hazing, alcohol, drugs, or anything that could also affect athletics, I want to be a part of it," he says. "The environment lends itself to exchanging ideas."

Resources

www.hazingstudy.org 
This site includes the hazing research from Elizabeth Allan and Mary Madden.

hazing.fsu.edu 
Florida State University's hazing prevention Web site has a quiz to test your hazing knowledge, a copy of the school's hazing-free community pledge, and other information. FSU's Associate Dean of Students, Adam Goldstein, can be contacted through the site, and welcomes any inquiries from administrators.

www.hazingprevention.org 
This site offers many resources on hazing prevention, including information about upcoming hazing symposiums and Webinars.

www.stophazing.org 
Resources on this site include myths and facts about hazing, reading lists, and speech transcriptions.

www.ncaa.org 
The NCAA's hazing prevention resources, which include information from the 2008 NCAA Hazing Prevention Summit, can be found by entering "hazing prevention" into the search window.

www.nfhs.org 
The NFHS provides information on hazing prevention for high school student-athletes, their parents, athletic administrators, and coaches on its Web site. Click on "Hazing Information" under the "Education" pulldown menu.

www.niaaa.org 
The National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association has partnered with Allegro Media to produce an educational DVD titled Dying to Belong, which can be used as a preventative tool against hazing for athletes, parents, coaches, and administrators. Click on "Publications/Products" in the left-hand menu bar.

education.vermont.gov 
The state of Vermont's Department of Education Web site includes a model policy that schools can use in hazing prevention. Enter "student hazing" into the search function, which is a clickable link found at the top of the page.

www.hazing.cornell.edu/issues/resources.html 
This resource includes a long list of articles, prevention ideas, and links to research on hazing. It also has information on team building activities that can be used as alternatives to hazing.