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Aug. 6, 2025 |  By: Gavin McGough

NWMSU has updated its hazing policy to adhere to new laws

Northwest Missouri State University has updated its hazing policy to align with new laws.

The Stop Campus Hazing Act was signed into law by President Biden during the final days of his administration. It requires all institutions of higher education in the US to log incidents of hazing and submit them in a security report to the federal government each year. It also requires universities to post any findings of hazing on their website for five years.

There have also been recent changes to state law, which expands the defintion of hazing and of student groups.

The Academic and Student Affairs Committee at Northwest created the policy to fit federal guidelines. The Board of Regents approved the changes at a meeting last week.

Speaking before the regents, Vice President of Student Affairs Matt Baker said a whole range of different behaviors can count as hazing, some more common at Northwest than others.

Baker says, " And as you can imagine, allegations have a very broad perspective. Somebody made me feel uncomfortable versus something that we typically see on national news. We don't typically have those kinds of things. I wouldn't say we're new to those. So we're obviously very concerned and attuned to it."

Overall, the University sees a complaint of hazing only once a year or so. An actual 'finding' of hazing, following investigation, is relatively rare.