WASHINGTON (Gray DC) – A bill to address hazing on college campuses is on the way to President Joe Biden’s desk after passing unanimously in the Senate last week.
“The Stop Campus Hazing Act” passed through both chambers of Congress after years of work by families who have lost children to college hazing.
“The Max Gruver family and other families who they had children died through hazing incidences. This is this is the product of their advocacy,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who worked with the Gruver family to craft the legislation.
Gruver was a Louisiana State University student who died after being hazed while pledging a fraternity in September 2017.
“I think it’s just carrying on, it’s Max’s legacy now,” said Rae Ann Gruver, his mother. “And it’s going to save somebody else’s life when Max’s life couldn’t be saved.”
The bill will improve hazing reporting by requiring colleges to include hazing incidents in their annual security report, will prevent hazing by establishing hazing education and prevention programs and aims to help students and parents make informed decisions about joining organizations on campus by requiring colleges to publish the institution’s hazing prevention policies and the organizations that have violated them.
Senator Cassidy said he believes the bill will help stop college hazing deaths.
“I imagine universities will tend to shut down organizations that are found guilty of repetitively hazing,” he said. “And you’re going to end that culture. You’re going to put instead a culture where the prospective student, the family, they know they’re going to a university and they’re going to have a good experience, not a tragic one.”
President Biden is expected to sign the Stop Campus Hazing Act into law before he leaves office.
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