Three in five college students in campus organizations are subjected to hazing, according to a national study done by StopHazing, an organization devoted to researching and preventing hazing.

Colorado State University has been taking extra precautions to prevent hazing from affecting the campus.

“There is a University-wide comprehensive hazing prevention committee that started meeting this semester under the leadership of Dean of Students Dr. Jody Donovan,” said Lindsay Sell, director of Fraternity and Sorority Life. The committee, called the hazing prevention work group, plans to conduct a campus-wide assessment to determine students’ experiences with hazing.

Hazing is any act that causes physical or mental harm, or any act that makes members feel uncomfortable.

“It is very clear that hazing has no place in our community and is not tolerated,” said Jason LeJeune, the Interfraternity Council vice president of risk management. “Hazing plays no role in character development and our members know that.”

The Interfraternity Council and the Fraternity and Sorority Life offices are taking extra measures to ensure that hazing does not affect CSU. If it does, there are ways for students to reach out and receive help.

“We honestly do a great job at working with chapters to see where they are at and how we can offer assistance,” LeJeune said. “(We) make sure that if we hear about questionable activities taking place, that we investigate and truly figure out what happened so that we can take the appropriate steps to rectify the situation.”

Students who experience hazing can fill out an incident report on the CSU Greek life website, and fraternity and sorority advisers can send in violations to get evaluated by staff. 

Donovan’s hazing prevention work group includes faculty and staff from the CSU Police Department, marching band, sports clubs, residence life, ROTC and others. The group is working on different ways to prevent hazing throughout the campus and the communities involved on campus.

“We’re in the process of developing a comprehensive approach to education, prevention and intervention related to hazing,” Donovan said. “This past year, we created the lead team to investigate hazing reports.”

The team aims to increase reporting of hazing incidents through the development of a new website.

“We hope this approach … will empower our students and employees to better understand what hazing is and stand up against it for themselves and their fellow Rams,” Donovan said.

Collegian Reporter Dallas Head can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @head94head.