The IU Interfraternity Council launched a new hazing prevention program, Hoosiers Not Hazers, on Monday. The program serves to educate IU fraternity chapters about what hazing is and how to prevent it.
The program was created to address a history of hazing incidents that have taken place at IU fraternities.
Of the 26 Greek Life organizations that have been on disciplinary status during the 2022-23 school year, 17 achieved that status due to hazing, according to the IU Division of Student Affairs.
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The IFC created the program to promote healthy brotherhood and show their commitment to fostering healthy change in the community, IFC President Conor Kennedy said.
“Once we really saw from the OSC (Office of Student Conduct) that hazing was becoming a major issue in our community, we really knew that we had to step up and do something about it,” Kennedy said. “It was kind of ravaging our entire community and a lot of people were promoting unhealthy traditions.”
Hoosiers Not Hazers sessions are around 90 minutes long, and each fraternity chapter is required to complete the session before homecoming in the Fall, Kennedy said. When a chapter recruits new members next fall and spring, the session will be delivered to the new member class.
The session includes information about what hazing is, how and where to look for it and how to address it, Kennedy said. After a group presentation, the session participants split up into small groups to talk through specific hypothetical scenarios involving hazing.
All IU fraternity chapters are required to attend the sessions, Kennedy said. Any chapter not in attendance will be subject to an IFC judicial board hearing.
Compared to past hazing prevention programs that were information driven and non-interactive, Hoosiers Not Hazers is unique because of its peer-to-peer, conversational approach, Kennedy said.
The IFC got the idea for this approach from the Panhellenic Council’s program Safe Sisters, Kennedy said. Safe Sisters was created last semester to support sorority members who have survived sexual assault, as well as to educate about consent, rape culture, hookup culture and bystander intervention.
“That was effective and what we really learned from that was that the conversational approach is much more valuable than just being told rules,” Kennedy said.
Hoosiers not Hazers was created by the new IFC judicial board, which was established in January to address issues that go against IFC bylaws, IFC Judicial Board Chairman Jack Bartlett said. The board is made up of nine members from multiple fraternities. Once the board was established, they began to build the hazing prevention program in February.
