One fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma, held an anti-hazing workshop on Wednesday to promote the cause on campus.

Ken Green, president of Phi Beta Sigma and human biology senior, said they’ve been planning this workshop since late August. Though it was part of his fraternity’s national requirements, Green said he thought it was necessary for their fraternity for more reasons.

“The idea came from our national headquarters and it’s something that we’re required to do, but at the same time it’s something that’s needed in the community so that’s why we took it upon ourselves to have this program,” Green said. 

“People are getting hurt because of hazing. We’re trying to combat that.”

Geoff Sabourin, Interfraternity Council president and food industry management senior, said MSU Greek Life has been raising awareness through various social media campaigns. He said the MSU Greek Life made a Facebook event for it, and various chapters have made posts with captions saying “these hands don’t haze” while making their hand signs.

Additionally, MSU Greek Life will be hosting a New Member Orientation in October.

“We plan to speak on topics such as hazing among other issues that are typically associated with freshman college students and other issues sometimes associated to Greek Life specifically,” Sabourin wrote in an email.

Green said, in his presentation, people are not aware of the many types of hazing. He said most people only think of hazing as physical but other methods include mental hazing, cyberbullying and peer pressure.

Elijah Tyra, vice president of Phi Beta Sigma and criminal justice junior, said there’s an easy way to determine if something is hazing.

“Would you do it if your mom was seeing you do it?” Tyra said. “It’s not worth going to jail, it’s not worth giving up the rest of your life for this.”

Green said since 1970, at least one person has died because of hazing and 95 percent of hazing incidents go unreported. He said hazing can happen in any organization, not just Greek life. Green said he thinks events like the workshop are important for the community.

“Events like these give more awareness to the situation and consequences of how dangerous hazing actually is,” he said. “People know people haze. You just gotta let people know that it’s not okay.”

Tyra said he thinks organizations need to do more to prevent hazing.

“It’s not just gonna stop one day," Tyra said. "It has to be an actual action plan to prevent this kind of thing from happening." 

Media and information senior Kris Johnson said he thinks Phi Beta Sigma does a lot to prevent hazing. He said hazing is bad for prospective members and for the group.

“Our fraternity is really trying to be on the forefront of this battle trying to combat hazing. We’re trying to represent our campus and our brotherhood on campus,” Johnson said.