PSNTV Presents: The Clery Center Interview

In October 2024, data published by Penn State Student Affairs showed that reported instances of hazing at the university more than doubled compared to the same time frame one year prior. Those numbers tell part of the story of how hazing is a persistent problem at colleges and universities on a local, regional and national scale. Until recently, however, a patchwork of state-level and absence of federal anti-hazing legislation made it difficult to understand and combat the full scope of the problem.

One of the groups at the forefront of the fight for change is the Clery Center. Staff members at the Clery Center played an integral role advocating for the federal Stop Campus Hazing Act that was signed into law in December 2024. Under the law, higher education institutions are required to include hazing in their annual Clery Act reporting and implement preventative, anti-hazing programming.

In this special report, PSN-TV's Yeyya Wane talked with Abigail Boyer, associate executive director at the Clery Center and Sheilah Vance, chairperson of the Clery Center's board of directors, to learn more about how the new law came to be and what it means for college students in the U.S.

Their conversation covers how universities are responding to the new law's requirements, how the advocacy of hazing victims' families impacted their work, what the future of hazing prevention looks like and more.

Watch the interview: