[Mitai-announce] Anti-Hazing and Non-Discrimination Acknowledgement for Amnesty International

[hbey@MIT.EDU]

Halide Bey submitted an Anti-Hazing and Non-Discrimination Acknowledgement for Amnesty International.

All MIT student groups are required to follow the Massachusetts anti-hazing law and the MIT Non-Discrimination policy.  The full texts of these policies are copied below.  They should also be distributed to any members not receiving this email and any current or future pledges or applicants.

If you have any questions, concerns, or want to report questionable behavior or violations of these policies, please email asa-president at mit.edu (confidential, non-archived) and/or Leah Flynn (laflynn at mit.edu, Director of the Student Activities Office).

Sincerely,
The ASA Executive Board


Text of Anti-Hazing Law:

Section 17. Hazing; organizing or participating; hazing defined: Whoever is a principal organizer or
participant in the crime of hazing, as defined herein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than three thousand
dollars or by imprisonment in a house of correction for not more than one year, or both such fine and imprisonment.

The term hazing as used in this section and in sections eighteen and nineteen, shall mean any conduct or method of
initiation into any student organization, whether on public or private property, which willfully or recklessly
endangers the physical or mental health of any student or other person. Such conduct shall include whipping, beating,
branding, forced calisthenics, exposure to the weather, forced consumption of any food, liquor, beverage, drug or
other substance, or any other brutal treatment or forced physical activity which is likely to adversely affect the
physical health or safety of any such student or other person, or which subjects such student or other person to
extreme mental stress, including extended deprivation of sleep or rest or extended isolation.

Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section to the contrary, consent shall not be available as a defense to
any prosecution under this action.

Section 18. Failure to report hazing: Whoever knows that another person is the victim of hazing as defined in
section seventeen and is at the scene of such crime shall, to the extent that such person can do so without danger
or peril to himself or others, report such crime to an appropriate law enforcement official as soon as reasonably
practicable. Whoever fails to report such crime shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars.

Section 19. Copy of Secs. 17 to 19; issuance to students and student groups, teams and organizations; report:
Each institution of secondary education and each public and private institution of post secondary education shall
issue to every student group, student team or student organization which is part of such institution or is
recognized by the institution or permitted by the institution to use its name or facilities or is known by the
institution to exist as an unaffiliated student group, student team or student organization, a copy of this section
and sections seventeen and eighteen; provided, however, that an institution's compliance with this section's
requirements that an institution issue copies of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen to unaffiliated
student groups, teams or organizations shall not constitute evidence of the institution's recognition or endorsement
of said unaffiliated student groups, teams or organizations.

Each such group, team or organization shall distribute a copy of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen to
each of its members, plebes, pledges or applicants for membership. It shall be the duty of each such group, team or
organization, acting through its designated officer, to deliver annually, to the institution [in MIT's case the
Office of Student Life Programs (with exception of varsity teams and club sports, who will deliver attested
acknowledgements to the Department of Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation)] an attested acknowledgement
stating that such group, team or organization has received a copy of this section and said sections seventeen and
eighteen, that each of its members, plebes, pledges, or applicants has received a copy of sections seventeen and
eighteen, and that such group, team or organization understands and agrees to comply with the provisions of this
section and sections seventeen and eighteen.

Each institution of secondary education and each public or private institution of post secondary education shall, at
least annually, before or at the start of enrollment, deliver to each person who enrolls as a full time student in
such institution a copy of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen.

Each institution of secondary education and each public or private institution of post secondary education shall
file, at least annually, a report with the board of higher education and in the case of secondary institutions, the
board of education, certifying that such institution has complied with its responsibility to inform student groups,
teams or organizations and to notify each full time student enrolled by it of the provisions of this section and
sections seventeen and eighteen and also certifying that said institution has adopted a disciplinary policy with
regard to the organizers and participants of hazing, and that such policy has been set forth with appropriate
emphasis in the student handbook or similar means of communicating the institution's policies to its students. The
board of higher education and, in the case of secondary institutions, the board of education shall promulgate
regulations governing the content and frequency of such reports, and shall forthwith report to the attorney general
any such institution which fails to make such report.



Text of Non-Discrimination Policy:

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in education and employment. The Institute does not discriminate against individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, ancestry, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, employment policies, scholarship and loan programs, and other Institute administered programs and activities, but may favor US citizens or residents in admissions and financial aid.