Online anti-hazing training opened for Oberlin students Tuesday. The program is mandatory for all students and must be completed by March 10, 2023. Coaches, volunteers, and staff who run campus organizations and have direct contact with students are also legally required to undergo anti-hazing training ac- cording to Sec. 3345.19(E2) of the Ohio Revised Code.

Students will complete the anti-hazing training via Vector Solutions, a third-party online training site. Oberlin has used a Vector service, Everfi, for online alcohol safety training and decided to expand that relationship by using their anti-hazing training as well. The anti-hazing program was developed by Norman J. Pollard, former dean of students at Alfred University, to be available
on a national scale. The training is meant to help students at a broad range of colleges and universities identify hazing in a variety of situations.

There is no standard definition of hazing, so the training uses a definition developed by Alfred University’s National Survey on Hazing: “any activity expected of someone joining or participating in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers them regardless of the person’s willingness to participate.” This definition is broken down into three parts — what hazing can be, who can experience hazing, and the fact that hazing can happen regardless of consent. Hazing does not only happen during initiation into a group — students can also be hazed when moving into a new role or position. Any activity that can cause physical or mental harm falls under the definition of hazing, even if the victim agrees to participate in the activity.

According to Section 2903.31 of the Ohio Revised Code, “‘hazing’ means doing any act or coercing another, including the victim, to do any act of initiation into any student or other organization or any act to continue or reinstate membership in or affiliation with any student or other organization that causes or creates a substantial risk of causing mental or physical harm to any person, including coercing another to consume alcohol or a drug of abuse, as defined in section 3719.011 of the Revised Code.”

Ohio’s state law has included both mental and physical concerns since 1983, when the law was first introduced. However, it was expanded to its current purview in 2021 after the death of Stone Foltz at Bowling Green State University.

In Ohio, hazing is a second-degree misdemeanor, which carries up to 90 days in prison. If drugs or alcohol are involved, it becomes a third-degree felony that can carry up to three years in prison. Starting in the 2022–23 school year, all higher education institutions must report any hazing cases from the past five years in a publicly available report. The Ohio State University has had 13 reports of hazing in its sororities and fraternities since 2018. There have been reports of hazing leveled against four organizations at Kenyon College. Oberlin does not have any hazing reported from the period of 2018–2022.

Second-year College student Abby Rickin-Marks felt that the training could have been improved for Oberlin students by including identity-aware information, but understood that the training provides broad coverage in a short period of time.

“They didn’t discuss any of the racialized or gendered aspects of hazing,” Rickin-Marks said. “There wasn’t any identity-based stuff, but in 25 minutes you can’t cover that.”

Thom Julian, associate dean of students, says that he hopes the anti-hazing training will begin a dialogue around hazing.

“Students may have a good basis of the major points of hazing, but the training actually talks about some of the more subtle
barriers,” Julian said. “Hopefully, that will spark some conversation on campus so they’re more educated on it.”