LSU students walk in and out of the Student Union on Monday, March 20, 2023, on Highland Road in Baton Rouge. (Matthew Perschall for Louisiana Illuminator)

University leaders say they are struggling to punish college students for hazing following the enactment of state law in 2024 that requires them to follow a standard of evidence more commonly used in criminal proceedings.

Under the new law, schools must abide by a higher standard of evidence in any case where the offense is punishable by expulsion or a suspension of at least 10 days. Previously, administrators could hold a student responsible if the evidence points to it being at least slightly more likely than not the student is responsible. Even if there is conflicting testimony, a student could be punished if the evidence tipped the scale just past a 50% likelihood.

Now universities need clear and convincing evidence, a standard used in some court cases such as proving fraud or terminating parental rights. The threshold requires evidence that points to the student's guilt being substantially more probable than not, and it might require multiple witnesses, photos or other reports to firmly convince administrators.

Clearing that bar can be difficult because, unlike in courtroom proceedings, administrators don't have as much power to gather evidence.

"We can't force anyone to participate or to talk to us," said LSU General Counsel Trey Jones, a member of an anti-hazing panel that met Tuesday at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. "We can't subpoena any documents. We have to rely on what the police collect for us, and what we're able to gather on our own happenstance. That just makes the heightened burden of proof impossible to meet."

The Louisiana Legislature created the Caleb Wilson Hazing Prevention Task Force earlier this year and named it after the 20-year-old Southern University student who died in an off-campus incident in March while pledging Omega Psi Phi fraternity.

Police said Wilson's death was the direct result of a hazing incident in which he was punched in the chest multiple times. Several fraternity members face criminal charges, and Southern removed the fraternity from campus.

The law in question, authored by Rep. Dixon McMakin, R-Baton Rouge, passed the legislature with no votes against it and after little discussion. McMakin, who is not on the task force, declined to comment for this report.

Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, D-Lafayette, said lawmakers did not know at the time the new standard of evidence would make it harder to hold someone caught hazing responsible.

Boudreaux and other lawmakers on the task force, including Reps. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans, and Joe Stagni, R-Kenner, said they would revisit the law and are considering reverting back to the old standard of evidence.

Lawmakers have taken a renewed interest in hazing on college campuses since Wilson's death, the first in Louisiana since the fatal 2017 fraternity hazing of LSU student Maxwell Gruver. Gruver, 18, died after a hazing ritual that involved chugging high-proof alcohol. One of the students involved, Matthew Naquin, was convicted of negligent homicide in the case. After Gruver's death, lawmakers increased penalties for hazing in an attempt to stamp out the practice.

But hazing is ultimately a cultural issue, university leaders said at Tuesday's task force meeting. Alumni of organizations that have historically perpetrated hazing, such as fraternities, marching bands and athletic teams, have played a role in preserving it, interim LSU President Matt Lee said.

Lee described a meeting with middle-aged LSU fraternity alumni after he became interim provost in 2021.

"These were a group that were deeply, deeply committed to preserving a set of traditions, some of which were deeply toxic, frankly," Lee said. "I'm sorry, but this is part of the problem, this culture, intergenerational transmission of culture."

While university leaders and task force members agreed it would be impossible to totally stamp out hazing, they committed to ending hazing incidents that result in serious bodily harm or death.