UAA athletics addresses hazing with student athletes

In the last week of October, Assistant Director of Student Council and Ethical Development Nicholas Kramer met with UAA’s sports teams to discuss UAA’s haze-free policy.

This meeting came after UAA recieved reporters earlier this year from student athletes that hazing was occurring.

According to the UAA handbook, hazing refers to any acts that “cause physical or psychological harm or social ostracism to any person within the university community.”

This includes forcing someone to do things that are humiliating or may lead to social ostracism, such as public nudity and streaking.  

In an interview with Director of Athletics Ryan Swartwood and Senior Associate Director of Athletics Dede Allen, they emphasized the importance of keeping UAA haze-free.

“It’s not how you build family, and it's not how you build trust,” said Allen.

“It's not how you build a team. It's not a part of our culture. It will not be tolerated.”

Swartwood said, “Respect is one of our core values, so hazing is, to me, the opposite of respect.”

Hazing isn’t only an issue in athletics.

Hazing “can be present any time there's a club or an organization that has membership,” said Allen.

Since athletics demands team commitment, hazing is often prevalent in sports. But UAA has been largely free of hazing, said Allen.

“I’ve been here since 1994, and hazing has never really taken hold as a part of our culture.”

UAA has been quick to shut potential hazing incidents.

“Many, many years ago, the hockey freshman dressed up in women's

lingerie and would come to volleyball games and cheer,” said Allen.

The university recognized the potential harm in this situation and worked to shut it down.

“The hardest part about stopping that was that the crowd loved it,” said Allen.

“And so it's like, ‘oh, why are you stopping that? This is fun. They don't mind and the women's volleyball team loves it.’ Boosters loved it. The fans loved it. That was a hard one to go against.”

And now freshmen come to games in their hockey uniforms.

“They still come and they cheer,” said Allen.

UAA also recognized an issue like this with the gymnastics team 15 years ago.

“Again, it's like the innocent things that people don't think much of. It’s like, ‘well, why do you have concern?’” said Allen.

“We were at Sullivan Arena and the freshmen [gymnasts] were there in diapers.”

As with the hockey team, UAA saw the potential harm in this situation and put a stop to the behavior.

“But again, nothing that rose to the level of something that was … harmful,” said Allen.

UAA didn’t want the traditions to evolve into hazing, said Allen, “which is the reason why we were always really proactive.”

To help keep hazing out of UAA, athletes are sent end-of-season surveys where they can report hazing incidents.

Last year, four athletes responded that they were aware of hazing. However, the athletes didn’t give specifics.

Without details, the university can’t take action. This led to another survey sent out in the summer.

The summer survey had two prompts: “Are you aware of hazing? And please give specific details of your knowledge of hazing.”

Out of UAA’s nearly 200 athletes, the survey received 30 - 40 responses.

“They all said no, that nobody was aware of anything,” said Allen.

“There was one [person who reported hazing], but not specifics. If there’s not detail, then there’s … nothing actionable in terms of how we’re able to move forward.”

If you are aware of hazing, it’s important to report with as many details as you can provide, said Allen.

You can report hazing incidents at uaa.alaska.edu. Reports can be anonymous or on behalf of someone else.