ORONO – A pair of University of Maine researchers knew hazing ran far deeper than most people realized, far beyond fraternities and football teams. They proved it with the most ambitious survey to date of hazing on college campuses, and followed up with a survey of high school hazing.

They also know that efforts to prevent hazing aren’t working. Now they want to find out what works and begin implementing successful strategies.

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From left, professors Mary Madden, Elizabeth Allan and grad student Laurie Sidelko review their work at UMaine in Orono. Michael C. York/The Associated Press

This week, professors Elizabeth Allan and Mary Madden are launching a “National Agenda for Hazing Prevention in Education” that’s aimed at implementing research-based hazing prevention efforts.

“Often in academia, you research and publish in a journal, but you’re not sure how your research gets translated. We’re making a concerted effort to move that research into action,” Madden said.

In 2008, Allan and Madden documented the extent of hazing with a survey that for the first time went beyond fraternities and sororities and sports teams to look at glee clubs, bands and even honor societies. They found hazing was happening in almost all campus organizations.

All told, 55 percent of college students involved in clubs, teams or other extracurricular organizations were hazed, the researchers said. Hazing ranged from public stunts to drinking games, with 12 percent of the students drinking to the point of getting sick or passing out, they said.

The researchers define hazing as any activity expected of someone joining or participating in a group that has potential to humiliate, degrade, abuse or harm. The most dangerous practices include excessive drinking, isolation, sleep deprivation and sex acts.

Norm Pollard, dean of students at Alfred University in western New York, said educators still don’t have a handle on best practices for eliminating hazing. He conducted a major survey of hazing in U.S. high schools in 2000. Simply telling students not to haze isn’t enough, he said. Instead, groups need to be taught effective team-building exercises that do not involve dangerous rituals.

“From adolescent psychology, we know that desire to be part of a group is a fundamental part of growing up. We need to show them how to do it in more effective ways,” he said.

Madden and Allan say people reached out to them after their original research was published, expressing gratitude that someone had documented what they were seeing.

Then those people asked for solutions.

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