Federal Hazing Bill Passed by the U.S. Senate on December 11, 2024

Last year, we told you about the introduction of the Stop Campus Hazing Act in the U.S. Senate, which included the following requirements for colleges and universities:

• Inclusion of hazing incidents in the Annual Security Reports that colleges and universities prepare each year (using the included definitions of “hazing” and “student organization” for purposes of reporting statistics);
• Adoption and disclosure of prevention programming for students, staff, faculty, and other campus stakeholders, and
• Semi-annual preparation and reporting of Campus Hazing Transparency Reports which identify incidents of hazing that involve a student and resulted in a “formal finding of guilt, responsibility, or culpability” under the institution’s policies or applicable law.

The House version of this legislation, H.R. 5646, also titled as the “Stop Campus Hazing Act,” recently passed both chambers of Congress and is expected to be signed by President Biden. We will continue to update you on the status of this bill, including additional information about its effective date (which will impact the deadlines for certain requirements).

What might this mean for your campus?

If you are at an institution outside of Ohio, you may want to contact your Ohio-based higher education colleagues to discuss their experience implementing Collin’s Law back in 2021. Several of the key provisions of the Stop Campus Hazing Act resemble provisions of Collin’s Law, including the requirement that colleges and universities maintain and publicly disclose information about hazing activity twice a year.

The information needed for the new Campus Hazing Transparency Reports must be collected starting July 1, 2025, and the report itself must be available on the public website of the institution “not later than 12 months after the date of the enactment of the Stop Campus Hazing Act.” Anti-hazing policies, if they are not already in place, must be implemented within 6 months of the date of enactment of the bill, and must include “a statement of policy regarding prevention and awareness programs related to hazing,” that includes “a description of research-informed campus-wide prevention programs designed to reach students, staff, and faculty.”

The Higher Education team at Bricker Graydon will continue tracking this legislation and providing updates in our weekly Higher Education Insights Newsletter. If you have questions about how this might affect your campus, please contact a member of our team.