This week marks the end of Greek life orientation, where potential new members can finally fully join their organizations. This year’s orientation was the first after Gamma Chi Delta was publicly found responsible for violating Trinity’s Hazing Policy, and it included new restrictions on Gamma’s orientation period and a broader “crackdown” on hazing across all Greek life organizations.

The hazing prevention efforts this year came with new rules for orientation. These rules included requirements that Greek organizations publicly share their entire orientation schedules with New Active Class members and limited the use of New Active Class Orders. It also came with more conversations surrounding hazing, including initiatives like a Wellness Services Instagram post about the hazing spectrum and increased training about hazing prevention.

This year’s orientation period was also the first one in which Fizz, a social media platform that lets Trinity students make anonymous text and photo posts, was available to students, and Greek life hazing rumors quickly spiraled out of control on the platform. Almost daily during the three-week orientation period, people on Fizz posted rumors about hazing that included bleached buttholes, “elephant walks,” public nudity, embarrassing and/or uncomfortable attire, sleep deprivation, name-calling, public humiliation, switched undergarments and penetration by various objects. Many of these posts either were or pretended to be from the perspective of someone who was hazed, while other posters claimed to have witnessed or heard of these incidents.

There is currently no way to know if most, or even any, of these rumors are true. The anonymous nature of Fizz makes fact-checking almost impossible, and with all of the rules regulating orientation and attention surrounding hazing, this year especially, I would be surprised if more than a couple of these rumors were true.

I’m not concerned, then, about whether these rumors are true. I’m concerned about the ways that these rumors might dissuade victims of hazing from talking about their experiences and the culture of silence zero tolerance hazing policies create.

One Fizz poster wrote “i can tell u rn they’re making shit up about other orgs so that their pnms [potential new members] don’t feel so fucking hazed in the coming week. they want them to think they’re joining the good life.” I don’t know if the rumors have as nefarious an intent as the Fizz poster suggests, but there is some evidence, at least on Fizz, that the existence of outlandish hazing rumors has created a culture where people who have experienced less intense, crazy or serious acts of hazing are having their experiences dismissed by other users.

One Fizz poster, for example, wrote “everyone please stop reporting greek life stuff unless it’s actually bad,” which received 792 upvotes. Another poster, who pretended almost daily to be a Gamma sarcastically complaining about their feet hurting, wrote in one post “Gamma hazing day 5: Had to wear heels today and I have blisters now. Think I’m going to report for hazing.” These posts are intended to mock anyone who would report stuff that isn’t “actually bad” as hazing, and contribute to a narrative that if you report hazing you are “being a baby.”

We shouldn’t dismiss these legitimate hazing concerns just because they don’t live up to the intensity of some of the mythic acts of hazing that are on Fizz, but I do understand why there is so much pressure not to report hazing. Trinity has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to hazing, and every organization that has had a reported hazing incident has faced significant repercussions.

People are fiercely attached to their organizations and don’t want to see them put on probation or disbanded. Since a report of hazing is sure to lead to this outcome, members of Greek life organizations often pressure others not to report hazing, or to at least turn a blind eye to the “smaller” stuff. This underreporting, pressured or not, is a well-documented and unfortunate outcome of zero tolerance policies that have mandatory disciplinary actions.

It’s clear that Trinity has had issues with hazing, and serious ones. Trinity also has certain obligations under Texas law when it comes to hazing, and so some of the policies Trinity has about hazing are not entirely within their purview to change.

Yet if we’re going to have a real conversation about hazing on this campus and how to keep people safe, we need to be able to separate fact from fiction. To get this information, there needs to be a way for people to talk openly about hazing without fearing that their organization will automatically get suspended or that they will become a Greek life pariah.

In the absence of a change in university policy, I hope Greek life organizations consider opening up new spaces to talk about hazing. This could look like listening circles held across or within organizations without university personnel or mandatory reporters present where students can freely discuss hazing without fear of consequences. On the individual level, organization members can hold these confidential spaces for each other and listen to their peers without dismissing their concerns or urging them to not report.

Whatever the solution, it is clear that Fizz isn’t cutting it as a forum to talk about hazing. It’s time for something new.