If college and university leaders aren’t going to take hazing prevention seriously for altruistic reasons, then they should do so at the very least to avoid lawsuits.
That was just some of the advice regarding liability and responsibility offered Tuesday by Jason Meriwether, vice president of enrollment management at Kentucky’s Campbellsville University, to a stunned crowd of more than 200 college and university officials during Bowling Green State University’s second-annual Anti-Hazing Summit.
Pacing before his audience in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union, the hazing prevention educator laid out the many challenges and pitfalls facing those tasked with overseeing student organizations who want to stamp out hazing on their campuses. Such an undertaking requires a lot of work and forethought, he said, because not properly taking steps to address such dangerous rituals can not only result in costly lawsuits, it can easily result in death.
“I’ve encountered so many universities that don’t want to take that seriously,” Mr. Meriwether said. “Eventually universities have to start doing the right thing and really have conversations like this because what's happening in Bowling Green State University today is amazing… it's unprecedented because it's really hard to get this many folks in a room to talk about this in a serious way.”
Mr. Meriwether, who authored a book titled “Dismantling Hazing in Greek-Letter Organizations: Effective Practices for Prevention, Response and Campus Engagement,” said education on hazing and its dangers is key, as research shows nine out of 10 students who have experienced hazing behavior in college don’t consider themselves to be hazed. And in 95 percent of cases where students said they experienced hazing, they don’t report those incidents to campus officials.
Without recognizing hazing and its dangers, he said students aren't likely to stand up for themselves and others. Meanwhile, Mr. Meriwether said if the beginning of their freshman academic year and the start of spring semester are the only times when students are taught about it, it’s already too late.
His keynote address was just part of the all-day activities Tuesday, as participants attended breakout sessions throughout the day to learn from professionals from around the state about how to formulate hazing prevention plans and implement them throughout their campuses.
Tuesday’s summit is part of Bowling Green State University renewed focus plan on preventing hazing following the March, 2021 death of 20-year-old BGSU student Stone Foltz. He died after participating in a BGSU Pi Kappa Alpha tradition in which fraternity pledges were expected to drink a full bottle of liquor as part of their initiation.
Both of Mr. Foltz’s parents, Shari and Cory, attended the event for the first time Tuesday. Mrs. Foltz told the crowd of her experience that led the couple to form the iamstonefoltz FOUNDATION dedicated to hazing prevention. Mr. Foltz also held a presentation on identifying alcohol overdoses. He used cups that color coordinated with a chart showing various stages of drunkenness to illustrate how many shots of liquor it would take before someone likely reached lethal levels of intoxication.
Both agreed it’s their hope that others in attendance will continue to share their son’s story so that similar hazing deaths can be avoided.
“Since Stone’s passing, there has been a lot of work moving forward with eradicating hazing and educating the other universities,” Cory Foltz said. “[BGSU President Rodney Rogers] has been phenomenal and he's worked with us directly and his teams have been working with us directly to put together different ways to attack this and educate others on the dangers of hazing.”
Mr. Rogers said he’s pleased that college officials from other states such as Michigan and Virginia were also in attendance Tuesday and that university officials from across Ohio are taking up the torch to further educate their students and staff about hazing. Ohio State University officials have already committed to hosting the hazing summit next year.
“I was president during that time [of Stone Foltz’s death], and I won't always be president at Bowling Green, so whoever the 13th president is, I want them to make sure that they always remember that that is part of Bowling Green’s history,” he said. “At the end of the day, nobody believes that a tragedy will happen on their campus because you'll never believe it until it's happened. So we have to make sure that we remain vigilant and focused on education and making sure students understand the risks.”
First Published August 1, 2023, 11:46 p.m.
