Hazing Policy

Hazing

Suffolk University is committed to the safety of our students, student organizations, faculty, staff, and visitors. An essential element to a safe campus is a strong, effective, anti-hazing program.

The University encourages all individuals who are the subject of potential hazing to pursue all legal remedies available to them, including reporting incidents of potential criminal conduct to law enforcement. If the conduct in question is alleged to be a violation of both University policy and the law, the University will proceed with its normal process, regardless of action or inaction by outside authorities.

Decisions made or sanctions imposed through these or other University procedures are not subject to change because criminal charges arising from the same conduct are dismissed, reduced, or rejected.

Through the promulgation, implementation, and enforcement of this Policy, the University complies with Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 269, s. 17 and the Stop Campus Hazing Act. Pub. L. No. 118-173 (2024).

Prohibition Against Hazing

The University is committed to maintaining an environment of social responsibility that is free of harm, including hazing. Hazing is also against the law and Suffolk University recognizes the act of hazing as illegal, irresponsible, intolerable, and inconsistent with our community standards.

  • Hazing activities can be committed against current, former, or prospective members of the community.
  • Acts constitute hazing under this Policy regardless of the willingness of such other person(s) to participate in the activity or their actual or apparent consent to engage in the activity.

Hazing includes, but is not limited to behaviors that:

  • Emphasize a power imbalance between new members and veterans of the group, club, or team that involve ridicule, embarrassment, and humiliation.
  • Cause emotional anguish or physical discomfort that puts unnecessary stress upon the victims (e.g., verbal abuse, threats, sleep deprivation, confinement in spaces, exposure to elements, etc.).
  • Have the potential to cause physical and/or emotional harm (e.g., beating, branding, excessive exercise, forced alcohol/food/drug consumption, extreme physical acts, sexual acts, etc.).
  • Require someone to perform a task that violates any criminal law.

No policy can address all possible activities or situations that may constitute hazing. Whether a particular activity constitutes hazing will depend on the circumstances and context in which that activity is occurring in light of the above framework.

Suffolk University’s Anti-Hazing Policy:

Hazing is prohibited and defined as:

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:

  • Is committed in the course of an initiation into, an affiliation with, or the maintenance of membership in, a student organization; and
  • Causes or creates a risk, above the reasonable risk encountered in the course of participation in the institution of higher education or the organization (such as the physical preparation necessary for participation in an athletic team), of physical or psychological injury including:
  1. whipping, beating, striking, electronic shocking, placing of a harmful substance on someone’s body, or similar activity;
  2. causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing sleep deprivation, exposure to the elements, confinement in a small space, extreme calisthenics, or other similar activity;
  3. causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing another person to consume food, liquid, alcohol, drugs, or other substances;
  4. causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing another person to perform sexual acts;
  5. any activity that places another person in reasonable fear of bodily harm through the use of threatening words or conduct;
  6. any activity against another person that includes a criminal violation of local, State, or Federal law; and
  7. 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.

Student Organization -- An organization at Suffolk (including but not limited to social/ academic club, society, association, NCAA athletic team, club sports/intramural  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.

Education and Training of Community Members (Prevention Programs)

To ensure that every Suffolk University community member has a foundational understanding of their role in promoting a safe environment that is free from hazing, minimum training outcomes include:

  • Defining hazing and the range of hazing behaviors and scenarios;
  • Identifying the types of harm and impact that can result from hazing activities;
  • Differentiating healthy and unhealthy group behaviors and dynamics;
  • Identifying activities that build group cohesion, sense of belonging, and support individual and leadership development without hazing;
  • Developing skills to intervene in situations where hazing occurs or is likely to occur, including bystander intervention; and;
  • Options for reporting allegations of hazing, including anonymous reporting options.

The University requires training on the above outcomes for all of new students, as well as for student-athletes, and club executive board leaders. Specifically:

  • New Students: Incoming students will be required to complete training to gain a foundational understanding of recognizing, avoiding, and responding to hazing.
  • Athletes: In addition to completing all-student training, athletes are required to participate in an annual, pre-season meeting with the athletic director and/or coaches that review the definitions of hazing, provides key examples, and works with student-athletes to develop activities that support team building and competitive success. Compliance will be tracked by the athletic director or their designee.
  • Student Club and Organizational Leaders: In addition to completing all-student training, a minimum of two executive board members are required to participate in an annual Club and Organizational Leader training.
  • Fraternity and Sorority Members: In addition to completing all-student training, a minimum of two executive board members are required to participate in an annual Fraternity and Sorority Member training.

Additionally, each year faculty and staff, including coaches, are required to participate in training and will receive the Hazing Policy to ensure they foster an environment that is free of hazing and promotes healthy group cohesion and development. Specifically:

  • Employees: At the beginning of each academic year, all employees will receive a copy of the Hazing Policy and participate in a training that provides a foundational understanding of, recognizing, avoiding, and responding to hazing.
  • Coaching Employees: Coaches will receive the same training as Employees. Additionally, all coaches are required annually to complete an online training administered by the U. S. Center for Safe Sport that includes a module on hazing education and prevention.

Reporting Hazing Incidents

Students, faculty, staff, and student-athletes are encouraged to report hazing incidents. Reports can be made to Suffolk University Police (SUPD) by calling 617-573-8111 or to the Office of Student Affairs by submitting an incident report, which can be completed anonymously.    If necessary, obtain medical attention, and if you feel unsafe call SUPD immediately at 617-573-8111.

Applicable Processes: Any member of the Suffolk University community who sponsors, operates or participates in a program either on or off campus including but not limited to, Students, student organizations, faculty, staff and volunteers who violate this policy section may be subject to the University’s community standards processes.

Consequences for Violations: Sanctions for individuals and organizations found responsible for hazing include, but are not limited to:

  • Individuals:
    • Probation, suspension, or dismissal from the university.
    • Removal from university-sponsored housing.
    • Loss of leadership roles within, or removal from, extra-curricular activities or teams.
    • Referral to law enforcement for potential criminal charges.
  • Organizations:
    • Suspension or revocation of the organization's university recognition.
    • Loss of privileges (e.g., use of university facilities, participation in university events).

Annual Security Report/Hazing Date Report: The University will include hazing statistics in its annual Clery security report, detailing:

  • The number of hazing incidents reported.
  • The outcomes of investigations.
  • Preventive measures taken.

Campus Hazing Transparency Report: The University will publish a Campus Hazing Transparency Report on its public website, summarizing findings concerning any student organization or athletic team found to be in violation of the university's standards of conduct related to hazing. The report will include:

  • The name of the student organization or athletic team.
  • A general description of the violation and whether it involved the abuse or illegal use of alcohol or drugs.
  • Relevant dates (e.g., date of the alleged incident, date of investigation initiation, date of investigation conclusion, date of notice to the organization).
  • University findings and any sanctions placed on the individuals and/or organizations.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Anti-Hazing Statute:

See G.L. c. 269, §§ 17-19.

§17. Hazing; organizing or participating; hazing defined.

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.

§18. Failure to report hazing.

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.

§19. Copy of Secs. 17 to 19; issuance to students and student groups, teams, and organizations; report

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.