Transcript

Host: Hello, and welcome to Prevention and Protection, the United Educators Risk Management Podcast. Today, we’re discussing a new report from the Piazza Center titled “Charge for Change: Building Safer Campuses Now With Research-Informed Hazing Prevention.” Joining us today are two of the report’s authors and national leaders in this space, Dr. Stephen Veldkamp and Dr. J. Patrick Biddix.

Before we begin, a quick reminder that you can find additional UE podcasts, as well as risk management resources, on our website, ue.org. Our podcasts are also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Now here’s Alyssa.

Alyssa Keehan: Thank you. I’m Alyssa Keehan, Director of Risk Management Research and Consulting here at United Educators. And I’m particularly excited about today’s podcast because we’ve got the authors here of a really groundbreaking report on an important risk: hazing.

Unfortunately, hazing continues to be one of the most persistent and complex risks facing colleges and universities today. That’s why we’re fortunate to be joined by Dr. Stephen Veldkamp and Dr. Patrick Biddix to talk about their new report, “Charge for Change.” Stephen and Patrick, thank you so much for being here today.

Stephen Veldkamp: Great to be here, Alyssa. Thank you.

Patrick Biddix: Thank you. Glad to join.

Keehan: All right. Let’s start with the big picture. Steve, can you give our listeners sort of a nutshell overview of what is the “Charge for Change,” and why should higher education leaders care about it?

Veldkamp: Yes. At its core, the “Charge for Change” is a call to action for higher education. It reframes hazing not as an inevitable part of student life, but as a preventable, systematic problem that institutions can address with the right strategies.

Hazing is a comingled public health challenge, meaning that the faces look dramatically different in different subcommunities. In one, it’s more violence; in one, it’s hazardous drinking; and in another community, it can be relational aggression.

The report brings together decades of research that translates it into practical, evidence-informed approaches to address those multi faces of hazing. Hazing is still causing serious harm despite years of policy and awareness campaigns, and it’s time that we move beyond compliance toward real prevention.

Hazing impacts reputational risk, admissions risk, and, moreover, leads to so much harm in the collegiate environment that can absolutely be prevented.

Keehan: OK. So, Patrick, why does hazing persist even with stronger laws and policies?

Biddix: Well, we’ve made important progress around definitions, reporting, and legislation, and those things absolutely matter. But policy doesn’t automatically change culture or behavior.

One of the strongest themes in the research is that hazing is closely tied to belonging, identity, status, and group norms. In many cases, students are not participating because they think they’re doing something malicious. They’re participating because the behaviors become normalized within the group culture, sometimes to the point where students expect hazing as part of the experience.

We also continue to see barriers like confusion around definitions, secrecy, fear of speaking up, and prevention efforts that are fragmented across campuses. So the issue is usually not a lack of awareness. It’s whether the surrounding conditions are reinforcing the behavior or actively working to disrupt it.

Keehan: All right. So, Stephen, I want to press you on something I saw in the report. It says, “Compliance is not commitment.” Can you talk a little bit about what that means?

Veldkamp: Yeah. Compliance is absolutely necessary. It’s part of our lives. It’s part of our legal frameworks for how we operate in the U.S. But it’s not sufficient.

If students are still engaging in hazing behaviors, then compliance alone hasn’t changed the culture. It hasn’t changed student behaviors. Real prevention requires leadership commitment, coordinated strategies, and sustained efforts across the institution.

Compliance, we’d like to think, is being able to be reframed as the integrity, the effectiveness of campus prevention efforts.

Keehan: I really like that. Patrick, what are key research insights leaders should know?

Biddix: One of the things that really stood out is that students come into college already having prior hazing experience due to experiences through athletics, clubs, or organizations. Over time, that creates a perception that hazing is just simply part of group membership. In some settings, students even come to college expecting to be hazed.

As a parent of a high school senior, I even hear parents joke about how much fun their child is going to have going through it, just like they did. That normalization makes prevention much more complicated because the behavior becomes connected to belonging, tradition, identity, status.

That’s why prevention can’t rely on a single program or only target first-year students or new members through required education. It really takes a coordinated community approach, and that needs to involve leadership, advisors, student leaders, members, and, honestly, parents, which I think is probably the next frontier for this work.

Real progress happens when these groups begin reinforcing healthier expectations together over time.

Keehan: All right. So what does the coordinated prevention system look like?

Veldkamp: Yeah. It involves strategies at three levels: an individual, organization, and community level. Individually, it looks like skill building for bystander intervention. Organizational, it’s changing group culture. At the community level, it’s aligning policies and accountability structures.

These must be working together to create lasting and sustainable change. And this is where we have the opportunity: If we resource prevention, build prevention and protection early in early identification and response, we can get ahead of this and prevent it.

Keehan: That’s great stuff. Patrick, where should campuses start?

Biddix: Well, a great place to start is identifying a small cross-campus leadership team that can honestly assess whether prevention efforts are fragmented, reactive, or disconnected. From there, the group can begin to build a more coordinated strategy across levels and roles.

The key here is recognizing prevention is not a one-time initiative. It’s continuous, data-informed work that has to evolve and strengthen over time. I would also say it’s not the responsibility of one particular office, which is why we recommend cross-campus teams.

One of the first responsibilities of the group should be building an ongoing system for assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation so that prevention efforts become part of regular campus practice rather than just a response.

Keehan: That’s a great point. Steve, what role does leadership play in all of this?

Veldkamp: An absolutely critical one. Hazing prevention is a governance issue. When senior leaders prioritize it, it signals an institutional commitment.

Preventing hazing is not simply or only a compliance obligation. It is a leadership responsibility. And when we elevate prevention alongside other institutional commitments to safety, integrity, and educational quality, prevention becomes part of the university’s mission rather than a reaction to crisis or one incident.

Hazing is absolutely preventable with a visible commitment, clear expectations, sustained resources, and transparent accountability structures, all signaling that prevention truly matters.

Keehan: You know, I think we’ve heard parts of what you’ve talked about in different iterations before. But, Patrick, what makes this report different?

Biddix: There’s some great work happening in hazing prevention, but much of it is scattered across different disciplines, organizations, or resources. Our goal with this report was to create something that was comprehensive but still concise, giving campus leaders the context, research, and action steps all in one place.

We wanted this to be more than a call for change. We wanted it to help leaders understand how to actually begin building prevention systems. And honestly, if someone asked me, “What’s one thing I should read to understand hazing prevention right now?” I think this report provides a strong starting point for that conversation.

Keehan: Well, that’s a pretty strong endorsement. So, final question: What are the top action steps for institutions here?

Veldkamp: There are four action steps that we’d like our listeners to consider. First off, establish a shared definition of hazing. Second, invest in coordinated prevention strategies, again, that address that fragmented nature. Third, build data systems that really help with the accountability process. Fourth, identify an enterprise risk or risk management champion to facilitate or cofacilitate the “Charge for Change,” to engineer and implement that roadmap for a safer campus community.

Keehan: Well, I think you’ve given our listeners a lot to think about here and some really great practical action steps, and shared some interesting research, and made a compelling case for folks to get out and read the "Charge for Change." I want to thank you both, Stephen and Patrick. It’s been a great discussion.

Also, I want to note for our listeners, we are going to include a link to the “Charge for Change” on our podcast page, so definitely check it out.

Additionally, at United Educators, we have a number of free hazing prevention resources, including a couple of different online hazing prevention training programs, one for employees and one for students. These are free to UE members and can help your institution comply with the federal Stop Campus Hazing Act and potentially your state-based hazing laws.

We will also include a link to some of those resources as well on the podcast page, so please check them out. Thank you again, Patrick and Stephen, for joining us. It’s been a pleasure having you today.

Veldkamp: Sure thing. Thank you for the invitation.

Biddix: Great to be here, Alyssa.

Host: From United Educators insurance, this is the Prevention and Protection Podcast. For additional episodes and other risk management resources, please visit our website at ue.org.