The campus’ National Hazing Prevention Week kicked off on September 23rd and ends today, September 27th.

Georgia Southern University defines hazing as “Any act, intentional or unintentional, regardless of a Student’s willingness to participate in such activity, which subjects a Student to an activity which, for the purpose of initiation, admission into, affiliation with, or as a condition for continued membership, office, or other status in a Group or Organization.”

1. The first event was on Monday, September 23rd, and consisted of tabling events from multiple departments for information about hazing.

• “This event is one of the first cross-departmental events that we’ve had for hazing prevention, so we continue to do everything really excited about it to collaborate with other departments and show, you know, campus unity towards preventing hazing on campus. And, making sure we have a healthy, safe environment for all of our student organizations, clubs, and teams to thrive.” said the Assistant Director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, Daniel McBurney.

2. The second event was on Tuesday, September 24th;  a Student and Organization Leadership Development (SOLD) series Hazing Prevention Week workshop on Zoom.
The SOLD series is designed for any student interested in leadership development while learning valuable skills. The Hazing Prevention Workshop, facilitated by McBurney, consisted of defining hazing, hazing motivators, and resources that are available if hazing ever does occur.

• “When we look at it from a national level, we know that hazing isn’t just happening in fraternities or sororities… It can happen in any organization,” said McBurney.

According to McBurney, hazing occurs due to an imbalance of power between 2 or more people, such as an old member vs. a new member. Hazing prevention is about preventing the intentional or unintentional abuse of that power dynamic. Hazing motivators can be solidarity to build unity, ensure learning important material to the organization, loyalty, commitment, and social dominance.

The Hazing Prevention workshop went into detail about hazing and ways to prevent it from happening.

3. The third event of the week was Wear It Wednesday, where every Fraternity and Sorority, along with the Panhellenic Council (PHA) and Interfraternity Council (IFC), set up tables to show their collective commitment against hazing. 

• According to freshman Linley Jones with Kappa Kappa Gamma, Wear It Wednesday was made to proudly wear your Greek letters against hazing, “I love my sorority so much, the event was just a great way for us to help combat some common misconceptions about sororities that still exist to this day. I’m always proud to wear my letters.”

4. The fourth event was on Thursday, September 26th, and consisted of a webinar on Zoom for parents and supporters against hazing.

5. The last event is today, September 27th, the IFC Hazing Prevention Golf Tournament. 

According to the Georgia Southern Interfraternity Council’s Instagram, The tournament is a shotgun start at 1:00 pm at the Georgia Southern Golf Course. The format is a two-person scramble with a $250 registration per team, which covers the green fee, cart fee, and food. All funds raised will be donated to the Max Gruver Foundation.

The Annual Hazing Prevention Golf Tournament supports the Max Gruver Foundation, which strives to create awareness against hazing. By attending, you’re helping prevent hazing on campus.

To report any incidents of hazing, you can call the 24/7 hazing hotline at 1-877-516-3445,

which is 100% confidential and anonymous. You can also submit a hazing incident report.