Cheerleaders disciplined by university after two-year investigation into hazing
Indiana University of Pennsylvania's cheerleaders are on what the university is calling a "stayed removal of recognition" after a two-year investigation into allegations of hazing.
By Patrick Damp
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PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (KDKA) — Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s cheerleaders are on what the university is calling a “stayed removal of recognition” after a two-year investigation into allegations of hazing.
A “Campus Hazing Transparency Report” was posted to the university’s website earlier this month, and it showed that the cheerleading squad will be restricted through 2030.
“We hold our students and our student organizations to established standards of conduct, and we follow established university policies when those standards are not met,” the university said in a statement provided to KDKA-TV. “When a student organization is placed on stayed removal of recognition, removal of recognition could have been a sanction, but that sanction was stayed.”
According to the anti-hazing report, university officials were alerted to claims that the squad was forcing new members to clean up after social events, requiring those new members to participate in social events involving alcohol, and had underage members assist in the purchasing of kegs of beer.
Those allegations were made between the 2023 fall semester and the 2025 spring semester.
As a result, the cheerleading squad was placed on a stayed removal of recognition from August 2025 until May 2026. That means they will have restricted team activities and educational and developmental requirements that must be met.
A stayed removal of recognition means that the university determined the group had committed severe enough infractions to be shut down, but instead will have to complete their educational and developmental requirements over the next year. Should they fail to meet those requirements, the stay could be lifted, and they would be disbanded, losing all university privileges.
Beginning in May 2026, the cheerleading squad will be on probation until May 2030.
The full report can be read here.
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