LSU student Max Gruver who died after hazing incident 2017.
A bill that Senator Bill Cassidy introduced along with Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar to address hazing on college campuses is now on President Biden’s desk.
The goal is to force colleges and universities to be more transparent when it comes to hazing.
“They (people) can go online (and) see a report of all the campus organizations that have been found guilty of hazing at that campus,” says Sen. Cassidy. “If it’s just an allegation (and) never proven, (it) doesn’t show up. If they’ve been found guilty, it shows up and the parent knows to steer their child away from that particular campus organization.”
Cassidy says the legislation also establishes a campus-wide research-based hazing education and prevention program.
“Kids sometimes don’t know what they’re doing,” Cassidy notes. “So you educate the young students not to haze others. And it requires the college to publish on their website the institution’s hazing policies and the organizations that have violated (them).”
The legislation was spurred in part by the September 2017 hazing death of LSU freshman Max Gruver.
While pledging with Phi Delta Theta, Gruver was forced to drink 190 proof alcohol – 95% ABV – if he got questions about the fraternity wrong.
Gruver’s blood alcohol level was 0.495% — more than six times the legal limit — when he died.
Cassidy says fraternities and sororities across the country are in full support of this legislation.
“The national fraternal organizations — fraternities and sororities — are all behind this,” says Cassidy. “They don’t want hazing as part of the experience, and they have full-throatedly endorsed this concept.”
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