Presentation at Association of Student Conduct Administrators
At the beginning of February, I presented at the Association for Student Conduct Administrators (ASCA) annual conference in Portland, Oregon. I presented four sessions that shared findings from research about hazing including one session about how students negotiate marijuana legalization across campus contexts. Three of these sessions were sponsored by the Penn State Piazza Center as a part of my research fellowship which I have held since 2021.
Horizontal Hazing Across Campus: Student Swirl in Student Organizations (Sponsored by Association of Sorority/Fraternity Advisors)
Presenter: Dawn Maynen, PhD & Pietro Sasso, PhD (Penn State Piazza Center)
The presenter will share implications for practice from a longitudinal national qualitative study which tracked fraternity members who disassociated from their chapters because of hazing. Surprisingly all participants reaffiliated and sought membership in other fraternities. Members also experienced pre-college hazing, yet paradoxically transmitted hazing into other student organizations on their campuses. This chapter will apply the Horizontal Campus Hazing Model to frame recommendations for practice and frame campus prevention efforts.
Preliminary Hazing Behaviors & Intervention Strategies Used by Fraternity/ Sorority Professionals
Presenter: Dawn Maynen, PhD & Pietro Sasso, PhD (Piazza Center for Fraternity and Sorority Research and Reform)
The presenters will share findings from a national study of sorority/fraternity professionals about perceptions of preliminary hazing identifiers. They structured their approaches to identifying hazing by organizational and council type which scaled their interventions and competed with existing efficacious practices. Practices will include a hazing detection framework as well as a conceptual model to support identifying preliminary hazing behaviors and implementing strategies for integration into existing prevention or harm-reduction efforts.
Friends With Weed, Friends Indeed: College Students Negotiating Marijuana Legalization
Presenter: Pietro A. Sasso, PhD Associate Professor/ Faculty Research Fellow, Delaware State University/Penn State Piazza Center
The presenter will share findings from a national qualitative study that explored the experiences of college students following the recreational marijuana legalization. Findings suggested a general lack of knowledge regarding cannabis consumption and legalization. However, there is a desire to practice safe consumption and receive a more meaningful education on the topic. Recommendations for practice will be provided for higher education institutions to increase efforts to educate on safe practices and challenge stigma and misperceptions.
Student Conduct Approaches & Models for Student Organization Accountability
Presenters: Pietro A. Sasso, PhD Associate Professor/Faculty Research Fellow, Delaware State University/Penn State Piazza Center; Christopher Zarchada, Senior Associate Dean of Students., Northwestern University
The presenters will share findings from a national qualitative study exploring the use of student organization accountability models and frameworks by student conduct administrators. Findings will be shared about how incidents are investigated, methods of accountability, and the functionality of addressing collective members/organizational behavior. Implications for practice will be included by comparing findings to existing conduct from professional associations including AFA, NASPA, and ASCA.
