Resources for Students
What You Can Do
- Stay connected with friends outside of the group. Groups that haze often try to isolate their new members from others.
- Talk with others about what you are going through. You do not have to keep it a secret. Demanding secrecy is a common practice designed to protect people who are abusing others.
- Seek guidance from your parents/guardian or other family member.
- Refuse to participate. Others before you have done so.
- Join together with other new members to refuse to be hazed. There is power in numbers because groups depend on getting new members to join. Hazers don't want new members to realize how much power they have, so they work hard to keep them subjugated.
- Leave the group. This is hard to do, but is always an option. Walking away from hazing takes strength. Don't believe it if anyone who tries to tell you that it is sign of weakness or that you weren't tough enough to hack it. Quitting when you are being hazed takes character.
- Talk to a Counselor to help you sort out what to do.
- Report the hazing, confidentially if you prefer, to any Athletic or Student Affairs Staff Member.
If You Are Being Hazed, Remember:
- Anger, confusion, betrayal, fear, resentment, embarrassment, humiliation, hopelessness, helplessness, anxiety and depression are all normal reactions to being hazed. Some individuals have become suicidal.
- Physical consequences can include exhaustion, headaches, hangovers, illnesses, injuries, and scars.
- It's common to believe that things won't get worse, though they often do.
- You may want the hazing to stop, but don't want to get the group in trouble.
- You may want to leave, but fear the consequences or feel like you've invested too much already to walk away.
- Self-blame can occur and is fueled by hazers who tell new members that they will let others down if they leave or tell anyone what is going on.