By Brandi Shines
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Sept. 23, 2026) — A change in Warhawk Audio Weekly’s (WAW) usual format led to a special edition that took the story outside the studio and into an interactive hazing prevention exhibit at Auburn University at Montgomery.
With co-host Chris Wadkins absent from the episode, WAW moved away from its normal discussion-based format and instead covered “Traveling Through the Haze,” an experience designed to show students the realities and consequences of hazing during National Hazing Prevention Week.
“Today’s event is a little bit deeper,” said Dr. Andrea Blake, director of the Office of Accountability and Advocacy at AUM, about the week’s lighter events leading to the more serious in tone hazing awareness interactive exhibit.
Blake explained that the stations helped participants learn to recognize hazing and consider “what the impact may be for individuals, community members, organizations.”
Before entering the exhibit, hazing could easily be understood through the version often shown on television and in movies: fraternity and sorority initiation, embarrassing pranks, ridiculous challenges and traditions that may go too far but are still treated as jokes.
“Traveling Through the Haze” challenged that perception almost immediately.
The exhibit was organized into several stations, with each one offering a different activity or experience. Participants moved through the space listening to phone calls, watching news coverage, completing interactive activities and learning about real situations connected to hazing.
The creativity behind the event made the message especially effective. Instead of relying on a lecture, posters or a traditional presentation, organizers created an experience that required participants to actively move through the subject. Each station added another layer, allowing the seriousness of hazing to unfold gradually.
That structure also made the exhibit engaging without taking away from the weight of the topic.
One of the most emotional portions featured a slideshow presenting stories of people whose deaths or suicides were connected to hazing. Seeing real faces and real outcomes created a sharp contrast with the idea of hazing as harmless initiation fun.
The exhibit showed that hazing can involve humiliation, emotional pressure, alcohol misuse, physical harm and situations that can have lasting consequences. In some cases, those consequences can be fatal.
Research illustrates the scope of the issue. The 2008 National Study of Student Hazing by Elizabeth Allan and Mary Madden, available through StopHazing, found that 55% of college students involved in clubs, teams or organizations experienced hazing. And the study also reported that three out of five college students are subject to hazing.
The progression of the exhibit created a strong emotional shift. What began as an opportunity to cover a campus event became a much more serious look at how hazing affects real people and families.
A student identified as Kimberly described a similar reaction after completing the exhibit.
“It was eye-opening. I had heard of hazing, but I hadn’t heard of, like, firsthand experiences,” she said.
Nicole Bloch, a mental health therapist with AUM’s Counseling and Health Promotion Services, also worked the event. Bloch advocated the importance of knowing where to turn for support.
These conversations at the “Traveling Through The Haze” event helped connect the individual stations to the larger purpose of the event: helping students recognize harmful behavior, understand the seriousness of hazing and know where to turn for support.
In a sitdown interview after the haze interactive exhibit, Blake emphasized that the exhibit was also intended to help students, faculty and staff recognize that support systems are available while developing “an understanding of what it actually looks like.”
For the WAW special edition, “Traveling Through the Haze” became more than a replacement for a normal episode.
It became the story.
The experience showed how effective creative campus programming can be when it moves beyond simply telling students that something is dangerous and instead allows them to understand why.
Students who want more information about hazing prevention, campus accountability resources or support services can contact the Office of Accountability and Advocacy in Taylor Center, Room 1163, email Dr. Andrea Blake at ablake5@aum.edu, or call 334-244-3106
