Princeton Undergrads Undergo Hazing Prevention Training

For the first time, all undergraduates were required to take a hazing prevention course this summer as part of Princeton’s new partnership with StopHazing, an anti-hazing organization, and several peer institutions.

The University’s renewed focus on hazing prevention is framed by a 2022 case in which fraternity pledges pushed “cinder blocks across a field using their bare chest and then [had] hot sauce poured on their open wounds,” among other cruelties, according to an August 2025 email to undergraduates from Dean of Undergraduate Students Regan Crotty ’00.

As administrators investigated, “there was a sense that there was a lot more than we were aware of happening on our campus,” said Rochelle Calhoun, vice president for campus life, in an interview with PAW.

According to Calhoun, the University made details public about the 2022 case because “we wanted to really give some concrete examples so that students could understand … that these things are happening on our campus.”

The lack of awareness prompted Calhoun to convene a Hazing Prevention and Response Task Force composed of about 15 staff members that has met regularly since 2023. Around the same time, the University joined a three-year StopHazing program — the Hazing Prevention Consortium — alongside 10 other higher education institutions, including Harvard. Four liaisons from Princeton’s task force meet monthly with StopHazing, and the cohort participates in monthly webinars.

Elizabeth Allan, principal of StopHazing and a professor at the University of Maine, said that institutions “can not only learn from the experts who are providing guidance and technical assistance, but they can learn from each other.”

Hazing is against federal and state law. The Stop Campus Hazing Act, which went into effect this year, requires Princeton to disclose the names of individuals or student organizations involved if incidents are reported in the future; a 2021 state law instructed institutions not to “include the personal identifying information of an individual.” Disciplinary measures by the University range from warnings to withholding degrees; student groups may be sanctioned or unrecognized.

The webpage outlining Princeton’s hazing policy includes a list of nearly two dozen acts of hazing that have occurred at the University primarily over the past decade. State-mandated biannual updates since 2022 give more detailed snapshots, implicating members of a varsity athletics team and students in a fraternity, for example. The University will complete its next five-year hazing report in 2027.

In 2023, Princeton focused on assessing the current climate and level of awareness through end-of-year surveys and a StopHazing two-day site visit.

As a result, “we really saw that there was a big knowledge gap … in terms of students understanding what hazing really is,” said Calhoun.

Calhoun cited being sent on an errand run as an example of hazing that may not seem malicious but can inflict psychological, social, and emotional damage.

Last year, the University analyzed the acquired data. This year, the task force is reviewing training opportunities, such as the online course undergraduates took this year. Pre- and post-tests showed a “huge knowledge increase,” Calhoun said. Previously, the University conducted training with certain student leaders, but going forward, all first-year students will take part.

The task force will continue beyond 2026, with the goal of expanding to include students and faculty, according to Calhoun.

One future indication that the message is sinking in may be an increase in the number of reported incidents, according to Anne Laurita, director of TigerWell and a StopHazing liaison. Now that all students have been educated on hazing, incidents that may previously have been considered not serious enough to warrant action could be reported.

“This is not work that really will be finished,” said Kathy Wagner, associate director for TigerWell and a StopHazing liaison. “We are going to be … constantly improving it and really making sure that the entire community here knows that it’s something that we all play a role in.”