Summary: Vermont Law School’s Sports Law Institute will be holding a panel focused on the repercussions of hazing in sports.
Vermont Law School is preparing to take on hazing in the athletic world during a panel at the end of the month. The Sports Law Institute at the law school is presenting “Hazing in Sports: Legal, Psychological and Public Policy Implications” on March 29, according to a school press release. The event is free and open to the public and press. The panel discussion will also be streamed live on the law school’s website.
Hazing has grown to be a bigger issue as more incidents involving athlete-on-athlete abuse make national headlines. Research from 2015 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, as reported by Reuters, states, “At the college level, 80 percent of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes say they have experienced some form of hazing throughout their college athletic career while 42 percent reported a history of also being hazed in high school.”
Sports law covers a range of topics, including labor, antitrust, contracts, intellectual property/licensing, business law, commercial law, property, immigration law, criminal law, and torts. With such a variety of topics to know, studying sports law allows for a broad knowledge of most areas of the law. According to the school website, “The Sports Law Institute (SLI) at Vermont Law School serves as an educational, research, and professional vehicle for exploring connections between law and sports. The SLI engages in original research, promotes experiential learning and employment opportunities for VLS students and alumni, and connects the VLS community with academic and professional sports law activities.”
Professor Brian Porto, director of the Sports Law Institute, will moderate the VLS panel as they examine the public policy and legal implications of hazing, not to mention the psychological effects hazing causes. Guest panelists include Heather Thomas Lynn, a partner at Lynn, Lynn, Blackman & Manitsky; Rick Farnum, athletic leadership educator and former University of Vermont athletic director’ and Dave Landers, professor of psychology and gender studies at St. Michael’s College.
Porto said, “We look forward to welcoming our esteemed guests to Vermont Law School for what promises to be an informative, wide-ranging discussion on the issue of hazing in athletics. The discussion will explore what hazing is, why it persists on athletic teams, its effects on individuals and institutions, and what can be done to prevent it.”
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