Starting this year, all colleges participating in the Title IV program must collect statistics on hazing incidents that are reported to police for their annual security reports — including Elon University. 

President Joe Biden signed the Stop Campus Hazing Act in late December, amending the Higher Education Act of 1965 to include requiring institutions participating in the Title IV program to track and include hazing in their annual security reports. 

The annual security reports track all crime that has occurred on campus and within buildings owned by the university as part of the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990, which states that all institutions that participate in Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 are required to disclose campus crime statistics and security information. For the 2026 annual security report, all reported hazing incidents from 2025 will be included. 

The law also requires a Campus Hazing Transparency Report, which includes student organizations that have violated the institution’s hazing policies that has to be updated at least two times a year. Information for this report has to begin by July 1 and have the report publicly available on their website. Hazing policies have to be in place by June 23 and included in the annual security report. 

Associate Director of Student Involvement Quintin Tucker said the university is well equipped to follow the guidelines of the law due to its current anti hazing policies, including already listing hazing incidents on its website. 

Elon University defines hazing as “any activity expected of someone who is joining a group (or who is trying to maintain full status in a group) that humiliates, degrades or risks harming that person financially, emotionally, or physically, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate,” according to its website.

Elon also has educational training programs about hazing to greek life on campus. The anti hazing program is an online module discussing how to define and identify hazing and has been used on campus for three years now, according to Tucker. Though there is no current update, Tucker said the university is working on extending this training to other student organizations. 

However, Tucker said there is still a lot the university is figuring out in terms of who should be trained. 

“Who's responsible for communicating those educational pieces? Who's not responsible? Which organizations are involved? Also kind of expanding to if it is faculty, staff, alumni — who could be participants in hazing?” Tucker said. “The law expands it just in the scope of who's responsible and who should be documented and how to access the documentation of hazing.”

Tucker said there will not be changes to hazing investigations and policies as the law focuses on the transparency of hazing on campus. 

“The law is more so talking about the documentation of that, which we already do a good bit of it, specifically for fraternities and sororities,” Tucker said. “It's going to be more so about the visibility of if it's in other different organizations or different departments or divisions or at an institution, that's more so with a lot of more focus about expanding it beyond just fraternities.”

While Elon continues to work out the intricacies of the law, Tucker said the university is committed to the safety of its students. 

“We hope that we have the resources that the students need, and feel welcome, if there's any additional resources that students might need to make sure they're safe on campus, and their community is safe,” Tucker said.