Five ways "We Don’t Haze" can impact your campus

Although 2022 just began, national headlines continue to highlight the realities and dangers of hazing within our campus communities. Institutions nationwide have banned student organizations for hazing practices, students have been suspended for engaging in hazing, and lawsuits have been filed against campuses from students or families who’ve experienced harm. 

As you work with student organizations and campus professionals to increase awareness about hazing, the short film We Don’t Haze and the We Don’t Haze Companion Guide, newly updated in 2022, are useful tools to help students and employees identify hazing behaviors and establish traditions that promote a safer, more positive team-building experiences.

Five ways We Don’t Haze can impact your campus:

1. The We Don’t Haze Companion Guide incorporates the latest research.

The We Don’t Haze Companion Guide was updated in 2022, incorporating all the latest research and strategies for hazing prevention. The Prevention Brief discusses the issue of hazing, why it is a problem we should all care about, and research-based strategies to prevent hazing and its harm. This brief allows for users to take a deeper dive into the research and understand hazing and its prevention more comprehensively.

2. The Companion Guide includes FOUR action-based programming guides.

These detailed, strategic, research-based  guides will support you in implementing hazing prevention programming:  

• The two Discussion Guides walk through activities, questions and answers, and statistics geared specifically for student and faculty and staff audiences. 
• The Bystander Intervention Guide outlines the stages of bystander intervention, the warning signs and spectrum of hazing behaviors, skills and methods for safe intervention, and how to take action to prevent and stop hazing. 
• The Workshop & Activity Guide details activities on how to recognize hazing, power and control dynamics, and positive organization and team values in order to build healthy, hazing-free environments on campus

Level-up the award-winning film by utilizing the We Don’t Haze Companion Guide programming to develop hazing awareness, skills to prevent hazing, and build healthy groups and teams free of hazing on campus.

3. We Don’t Haze changes how students view hazing and makes them more willing and able to intervene.

Findings gathered from more than 250 students across multiple universities and types of student groups indicated that students who viewed We Don’t Haze had significant shifts in their perceptions of hazing and their willingness to intervene. They indicated that they held attitudes less supportive of hazing and perceived increased ability to intervene and provide support to peers who had experienced hazing. These changes were not observed in a control group that viewed a general leadership video. (StopHazing Research Lab, 2022)

4. We Don’t Haze demonstrates the real-life impact of hazing.

As one student participant stated: “The real-life experiences that were shown in the film brought so much perspective and light to what a horrendous thing hazing really is.” 

It may be easy for your community to think that hazing isn’t something that will impact them, perhaps especially if they or a loved one are not in college or joining a fraternity, yet we know hazing occurs across a range of student groups and ages, and has far reaching ripple effects for the survivors as well as their families, communities, and beyond. 

It is important to also remember the real-life impacts of hazing don’t solely occur when tragedy strikes — although true — hazing impacts many through its hidden harm too, such as mental health concerns like anxiety and depression or unanticipated life changes like moving and transferring, etc.

5. We Don’t Haze is completely free and available to all. 

We Don’t Haze was developed in collaboration with a number of partners including Clery Center, StopHazing, and families who lost loved ones to hazing. The film and companion materials have been made available at no cost to ensure everyone, on every campus, has open access to research-based tools and resources to prevent hazing.

Are you already using the film on your campus? We’d love to hear more about your work! Please connect with us by emailing [email protected].

Clery Center & StopHazing (2022) Five ways We Don’t Haze can impact your campus