This interview was conducted by Hatchet reporter Brian Wasik.
A national expert on hazing told students Tuesday that disciplinary consequences are rarely the most effective approach to reduce hazing incidents on college campuses.
Kim Novak, a former risk management and campus safety official at Texas A&M University and Arizona State University, said universities should focus on education and prevention efforts.
But speaking in the Smith Center to an audience of mostly Greek life members, Novak also stressed the importance of student efforts and bystander intervention.
The Hatchet spoke with Novak about public perceptions of hazing, efforts to reduce the behaviors and whether hazing can be eliminated from the college experience. The interview has been edited for length.
Hatchet: How would you personally define or constitute hazing?
Novak: I think of behaviors or acts that are developed with where they put people at physical risk, emotional risk. I also think that there is sometimes some intentionality – if they’re intentionally designed to humiliate or degrade people. Sometimes you can drink excessive amounts of alcohol and be fine. But the risk of what it could cause is a concern for me.
Hatchet: How do people fight against the perception that hazing is only tied to alcohol?
Novak: I think that one [of the ways] is to know what’s out there. I was shocked when the national study said that it’s not abnormal for sleep deprivation, sexual acts, eating bizarre foods that are potentially dangerous. It’s not unusual for those to be behaviors that occur. Now I will tell you truthfully, alcohol is usually involved in the majority of incidents, but it’s not always present.
You know there’s everything from the, ‘Here’s a fifth of Jack Daniel’s and you all have to stay in this room until it’s empty’ and, ‘So you’re the new member and you’re going to come drink with me and I’m going to keep pouring you drinks and you’re going to feel this weird pressure to not stop.’ I think there needs to be more inquiry there before I would call that second one automatically hazing.
Hatchet: If punishing or telling stories don’t work, then what does? How can universities prevent these acts of hazing?
Novak: I am not saying get rid of the rules and don’t enforce them. But what we’re really finding is that it’s very much like 25 years ago when we started to deal with alcohol – which we still struggle with – but it’s the prevention approach is you got to figure out, what it looks like on a campus, why is it happening on a campus, and that’s where you figure out what needs to change. It can be very difficult for victims to report they were hazed, especially if they are trying to gain the acceptance of a group or organization.
Hatchet: National statistics show that hazing is more prevalent in Greek life, but it’s also very prevalent in other organizations. What do you think of the perception that hazing is centered in Greek life?
Novak: I think there’s two reasons for that. I think that one, there’s been an earned reputation because some pretty crazy, severe stuff has come out of the national fraternal movement in the last 20 years when it comes to hazing. So that’s where the stories are coming forward and so that puts a target that people identify.
Secondly, ironically, I think it’s because the conversations: hazing education curriculum, the hazing workshop, the hazing speaker, all that, tend to be focused on the fraternity and sorority community. So we reinforce that with them.
