Hazing

Students are advised that Massachusetts law expressly prohibits any form of hazing in connection with initiation into a student organization. The law applies to all student groups, whether or not officially recognized, and to practices conducted both on and off campus.

The term "hazing," under Massachusetts law, means: "any conduct or method of initiation... which wilfully or recklessly endangers the physical or mental health of any student or other person." The definition specifically includes "whipping, beating, branding, forced calisthenics, exposure to the weather, forced consumption of any food, liquor, beverage, drug or other substance, or any other brutal treatment or forced physical activity which is likely to adversely affect the physical health or safety of any such student or other person, or which subjects such student or other person to extreme mental stress, including extended deprivation of sleep or rest or extended isolation." [Massachusetts General Laws, c. 269 § 17]

Hazing is a crime punishable by fine and/or imprisonment. The Administrative Board of the College will consider all reports of hazing in the normal course of this oversight, taking disciplinary action in appropriate cases, and will report confirmed incidents to appropriate law enforcement officials. A memorandum detailing the specifics of this law is available in the Office of the Dean of Harvard College (617-495-1558).

The failure to report hazing also is illegal, under Massachusetts law:

Whoever knows that another person is the victim of hazing as defined in section seventeen and is at the scene of such crime shall, to the extent that such person can do so without danger or peril to himself or others, report such crime to an appropriate law enforcement official as soon as reasonably practicable. Whoever fails to report such crime shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars.

[Massachusetts General Laws, c. 269 § 18]