On the heels of new anti-hazing legislation and a trial about the hazing death of a student, Bowling Green State University held the first Ohio Anti-Hazing Summit on Tuesday.

“It is a community issue. That means that we’ve got to ensure that current students that hear what is going on and they can have these conversations with their fellow students, parents and family members, faculty and staff. All of us are in this together,” BGSU President Rodney Rogers said. “Our goal is to ensure that we can eradicate hazing from college campuses. That is our goal.”

Rogers supported Collin’s Law and the Inter-University Council of Ohio Council of Presidents Anti-Hazing Principles, both put in place earlier this year. He delivered remarks and welcomed participants to the summit, prior to addressing the media directly.

“There is a networking opportunity here as well … to learn from each other. Because this is not just a Bowling Green issue, or an Ohio issue, but a national issue. This is an issue across the United States,” Rogers said.

More than 200 were in attendance, from at least 26 universities and other organizations. The event addressed the various issues surrounding hazing and its prevention for professionals working with K-12 and college students.

“This has been in the planning for some time,” Rogers said. “We certainly had a tragedy on our campus, with the death of Stone Foltz, a student, a sophomore here at Bowling Green State University.

“Across this nation, in virtually every year, since 1959, there has been a student death on a college campus.”

Foltz died in March 2021 after an off-campus hazing party. The last of the persons charged in the incident will be sentenced later this month.

Rogers said that BGSU officials needed to take the lead on the summit.

“We felt that we needed to take the leadership position to ensure that all of the public and independent universities in Ohio are aware of the responsibilities with respect to Collin’s Law to make sure, that as with the public universities in Ohio that we are following the framework and instituting the framework in an aggressive way.”

There were roundtable and breakout discussion sessions. focus on prevention education, innovative resources, best practices and strategies to eliminate hazing.

“What we want to make sure is that we are all sharing best practices, we’re all sharing comments back and forth, about what seems to be working on this campus or that campus. So we hope what people take home this afternoon is a renewed sense of energy,” Rogers said.

Collin’s Law has new requirements for reporting, which have become mandatory, he said. Breakout sessions addressed that reporting, external reporting, hazing through a cultural lens and conduct sanctioning.

The keynote address was delivered by Elizabeth Allan, Ph.D., a national leader in hazing prevention and professor of higher education at the University of Maine.

Her presentation was based on her original research on hazing and its prevention that evolved out of more general research on campus cultures, classroom teaching, campus diversity and equity.

Allan is also a principal in StopHazing, a research entity dedicated to comprehensive hazing prevention. The website www.stophazing.org has consulting and assessment services and evidence-informed resources.

Ohio Department of Higher Education Chancellor Randy Gardner also spoke. He was a key advocate in the passage of Collin’s Law and worked closely with the state’s college and university presidents on their anti-hazing efforts and the eradication of hazing.

Ohio Reps. Haraz Ghanbari, R-Perrysburg, and Ohio Rep. Michael Sheehy, D-Oregon, introduced anti-hazing legislation in Ohio House of Representatives.

“We’re grateful that the universities, all over the state of Ohio, the administrations specifically, and the governor, have taken a keen interest in changing the culture of how fraternities and Greek life changes and behavior with regard to initiations, must change,” Sheehy said.

At the University of Toledo, Sheehy was involved in Greek life. While he is closer to retirement than being a student, he could picture how hazing has become “dangerous and morphed,” especially during initiations, like in the Foltz case.

“I’m here to continue to learn and to continue to try to solve an important social issue that plagues all our universities … in the state of Ohio,” Sheehy said.