Ohio University's Office of Student Affairs will now forward all hazing allegations to the OU Police Department, regardless of the complaint's vagueness or anonymity, said Dean of Students Terry Hogan.
Before this protocol change, the Office of Student Affairs was not required to forward vague and non-specific complaints to the police, Hogan said.
We've made some clarification internally about how we're going to respond
he said.
The change in protocol, which came into effect earlier this quarter, comes in response to case law in relation to universities, Hogan said.
What courts have held in cases across the country is that an institution has an obligation to investigate each and every complaint he said. We're just going to make sure that happens.
Ohio's Revised Code defines hazing as doing any act or coercing another including the victim
to do any act of initiation into any student or other organization that causes or creates a substantial risk of causing mental or physical harm to any person.
Hogan said he was unaware if other universities have a similar hazing reporting protocol.
At this time, the protocol's requirement for making a police report pertains only to the Office of Student Affairs, he said.
Statistics are not compiled on how often Student Affairs receives vague, anonymous complaints, said Anne Lombard, director of student activities.
Lombard declined to comment on her opinion of the new protocol, as did Michael Sprinkle, assistant director of student activities and greek adviser for OU's Interfraternity Council.
However, the Interfraternity Council and the Women's Panhellenic Association did, issue a joint response to the protocol change yesterday, which stated they feel the protocol was not created to target greek life.
The greek community has been
and will always
stand by the morals set by our national and international organizations
which have all implemented anti-hazing policies
the statement reads. If these morals are not upheld
action will be taken by both the greek community
and should be taken by the university
as a whole.
Since 1970, at least one U.S. college student has died per year in a hazing-related incident, according to a fact sheet produced by National Hazing Prevention Week, a campaign sponsored by college speaker agency CAMPUSPEAK.
