Hazing in Greek letter organizations is defined as any act or set of acts that constitutes hazing and occurs in connection to a fraternity or sorority.
Hazing is often cited as one of the most harmful aspects of fraternities and sororities and poses a major threat to their existence, drawing great criticism from educators and administrators. As fraternities and sororities are very diverse in their structures, regulations, governing entities, and memberships, and as hazing can take on many forms, the issue of hazing within these organizations is complex and multifaceted.
Definitions
While most educational institutions include hazing in their disciplinary procedures, definitions of hazing can vary substantially.
The Fraternal Information & Programming Group (FIPG) defines hazing activities as: Any action taken or situation created, intentionally, whether on or off fraternity premises, to produce mental or physical discomfort, embarrassment, harassment, or ridicule. Such activities may include but are not limited to the following: use of alcohol, paddling in any form, creation of excessive fatigue, physical and psychological shocks, quests, treasure hunts, scavenger hunts, road trips or any other such activities carried on outside or inside of the confines of the chapter house; wearing of public apparel which is conspicuous and not normally in good taste, engaging in public stunts and buffoonery, morally degrading or humiliating games and activities, and other activities which are not consistent with academic achievement, fraternal law, ritual or policy or the regulations and policies of the educational institution or applicable state law.
Hazing is a crime in 44 states. For example, the Arizona Revised Statutes provides the following definition: "Hazing" means any intentional, knowing or reckless act committed by a student, whether individually or in concert with other persons, against another student, and in which both of the following apply: (a) The act was committed in connection with an initiation into, an affiliation with or the maintenance of membership in any organization that is affiliated with an educational institution. (b) The act contributes to a substantial risk of potential physical injury, mental harm or degradation or causes physical injury, mental harm or personal degradation.
Generally, institutions of higher education will have their own definitions of hazing, though they may closely mirror definitions found in their respective state statutes. For example, the University of Arizona provides the following definition of hazing in its "University of Arizona Hazing Policy", revised October 25, 2001: "Hazing" means any intentional, knowing or reckless act committed by a student, whether individually or in concert with other persons, against another student, and in which both of the following apply: (a) The act was committed in connection with an initiation into, an affiliation with or the maintenance of membership in any organization that is affiliated with the University. (b) The act contributes to a substantial risk of potential physical injury, mental harm or degradation or causes physical injury, mental harm or personal degradation. Note that the University of Arizona’s definition of hazing is virtually identical to the definition outlined in the Arizona Revised Statutes.
The current North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) definition of hazing also includes anything that could turn into hazing. This is the reason that many potentially innocent activities, such as a scavenger hunt, are included under hazing; they could start out as perfectly legal events, but could easily be modified to include some activity that could make it hazing (ex. stealing some of the items on the list or adding heavy drinking before or during). Requiring candidates, or even members as there is "brother on brother hazing", to attend events or be at a certain place at a certain time is also hazing. Many also consider the use of the term 'pledge' to be hazing. Things like physical activity will be condoned if there are fraters that are in the US Army or other armed forces present, whereas if those members weren't there it would be considered hazing.(Godwin, 2012)