College students are still dying from hazing, just as they have since 1873.

This year, at least two potential college hazing deaths remain under investigation, continuing an uninterrupted string of at least one hazing death every year in America since 1961.

Still, something is different.

A professor who's been chronicling fraternity hazing deaths for the 40 years, often with little or no reaction to his grim statistics, senses the change.

Hank Nuwer, a professor at Franklin College in Indiana, has been chronicling hazing-related deaths for 40 years, often frustrated at the lack of efforts to prevent hazing. Now, he says, the involvement of parents who have lost children to hazing may be changing the way universities respond to the issue.

A wave of hazing deaths at high-profile universities last year, led by Timothy Piazza's death at Penn State, has generated a public backlash that's resulting in tougher hazing laws at the state level, stricter rules and real reform by national fraternity councils and the biggest existential threat to Greek life on campus perhaps ever.

"The big, big change is the activism from parents," said Hank Nuwer, a professor at Franklin College in Indiana who has been a self-appointed scorekeeper of hazing's deadly toll since a student died due to the practice when Nuwer was a grad student at the University of Nevada-Reno in the mid-1970s.

Four decades, five books on the subject, and scores of a deaths later, Nuwer has chronicled the first college hazing death -- it was at Cornell University in 1873 -- when a blindfolded, disoriented pledge to his father's fraternity lost his balance and plunged into an Ithaca gorge.

True to form, the hazing death of 18-year-old Mortimer Marcellus Leggett was covered up by the fraternity and the university, with the school newspaper euphemistically writing that the freshman died while fulfilling "society purposes," Nuwer noted.

From there, the toll has swelled to an estimated 220 and counting, with two fatal hazing investigations now underway at the University of California Riverside and Murray State University, Nuwer notes.

And it's not always college students who die.

Just last month at the University of Kentucky, a four-year-old boy was struck and killed by a vehicle driven by an intoxicated Alpha Tau Omega pledge, police say. The ATO chapter was abruptly dissolved for allegedly furnishing the pledge with alcohol at a football tailgate party just before the 18-year-old got behind the wheel.

But it was last year's wave of hazing fatalities at big schools that finally seemed to change the legislative landscape and push national fraternity councils to begin policing themselves rather than risk all-out campus bans of their chapters.

The backlash seemed to begin with Timothy Piazza's death at Penn State in February 2017.

In this Nov. 9, 2017, file photo, a bicyclist rides past Pennsylvania State University's shuttered Beta Theta Pi fraternity house in State College, Pa. Fraternity pledge Timothy Piazza died Feb. 4, 2017 after a night of heavy drinking, during which he fell and suffered head injuries. Fraternity members didn't call for help for nearly 12 hours. His death led to the shuttering of the fraternity and criminal charges that are pending against several fraternity members. His parents are working toward reform of the Greek system to prevent future such tragedies. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

The 19-year-old sophomore downed 18 alcoholic drinks within 82 minutes during a booze-fueled initiation party at Beta Theta Pi fraternity. Amid it all, he fell down a set of stairs and suffered a head injury. No one from the fraternity called for help for nearly 12 hours. Former members of the fraternity now face facing criminal charges.

His death was followed in 2017 by deadly hazing incidents at other big-name schools, including Louisiana State University, Florida State University, Texas State University and the University of Nevada.

Moreover, the parents of these and other victims banded together, first in support of one another, then to push for sweeping hazing reform -- and in some cases, an outright end to fraternities on campus.

This final development is what's different this time, according to Nuwer.

In the past, a victim's parents might become an activist for change at a single university. This time, the close coalition of victims' parents is pushing for change at the state and national levels.

And they're having an impact like never before, Nuwer said.

"There always had been one or two," he said of activist parents. "Today at least 13 parents are now involved. And they are ferocious about it."

The resulting pressure on fraternities across the country has been intense.

This Nov. 7, 2017 file photo shows the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity house near Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fla. The parents of a Florida State University fraternity pledge who died of alcohol poisoning after a party have filed a civil suit against those who have a connection in their son's death. Thomas and Sandra Coffey are suing Pi Kappa Phi's national chapter and several others, including the nine fraternity members who were charged with criminal hazing after Andrew Coffey's death Nov. 3. (AP Photo/Joseph Reedy, file)

Perhaps no Greek-life group has felt the existential threat of the hazing backlash more than the minority fraternities and sororities represented by the National Multicultural Greek Council.

Lacking the long tenure, deep pockets and broader memberships and alumni networks of traditional fraternities, these minority fraternities simply lack the resources to withstand the recruitment moratoriums, the suspensions and even the threatened bans that often accompany high-profile hazing deaths, said National Multicultural Greek Council President Jessica Penaranda.

"Our worry is for the existence of Greek life," she said. "It could mean the end for some of our organizations."

But while the coalition of parents are having an impact, obstacles to the ultimate goal of ending deadly hazing remains, said Nuwer, who corresponds with many of the parents.

For starters, what's the most effective means of ending dangerous hazing? Even among parents who share hazing's ultimate pain -- the death of a son or daughter -- there's no unanimity for how best to deal with this deadly problem, Nuwer said.

Some, like Jim and Evelyn Piazza, are going the route of reform, pushing hard for tougher state laws, such as a bill making its way through Pennsylvania's General Assembly, and working with national fraternity organizations on stricter rules, especially when it comes to hard alcohol, along with more awareness and education.

Spurred by Jim Piazza, the North American Interfraternity Conference, the National Panhellenic Council and the group of parents formed a new anti-hazing coalition aimed at stopping dangerous hazing before it starts, and fighting for stronger laws against hazing.

Already, this new coalition has approved a policy prohibiting alcohol products exceeding 15 percent alcohol starting in September 2019 -- unless the liquor is served by a licensed third-party vendor. The new policy will apply at Penn State and 800 other campuses across the nation.

In this March 21, 2018 file photo, Stephen and Rae Ann Gruver sit in a Louisiana House committee room behind a photo of their son, 18-year-old Maxwell Gruver, a Louisiana State University freshman who died with a blood-alcohol content six times higher than the legal limit for driving in what authorities say was a hazing incident, in Baton Rouge, La. They asked the state legislature to pass a bill to make hazing by college fraternities a felony. (AP Photo/Melinda Deslatte, File)

But other parents, such as George Starks, who lost his 18-year-old son, Michael, to a hazing fueled binge-drinking episode at Utah State University in 2008, see nothing short of wiping fraternities and sororities from the face of college campuses as the only sure way to end hazing and stop the deaths.

"I, being a firm believer in the 'Ban Greek Life' movement ... my interests have nothing to do with what fraternities face, but, rather, what unaware parents face in the coming years as felony hazing continues its thorough off-the-radar lack of public awareness," Starks wrote in response to an inquiry from PennLive.

"Hazing and college frats are ingrained, inherently and irrevocably entwined until the end of time," Starks wrote, adding, "Unless efforts to close them down sooner succeed."

As for tougher state laws? Starks contended they don't provide much of a deterrent. Only actual prosecutions and convictions will do that.

"The easiest thing to do is pass bills in magnanimous pen-signing ceremonies, and the hardest thing to do is prosecute and convict transgressors without pleas of abeyance, lessened or dismissed charges, outright dismissals, or political/monetary self-interests derailing the process," Starks wrote.

As for the current hazing backlash brought on by last year's four deaths, Starks pointed out that a total of five students died, including his son, in 2008 -- yet little to nothing changed.

"Five frat hazing deaths in 2008 - the year Michael died - and four hazing deaths in 2017 (with the jury still out on 2018) suggests that we are far too comfortable in acquiescing to the journey while actually dismissing the destination," Starks wrote, concluding: "Sheer efforts aren't tantamount to success."

Clearly, while parents' support for each other is unquestioned, their preferred methods for battling dangerous hazing are not.

Even Nuwer isn't sure how it'll all turn out.

He said Pennsylvania's proposed law that would brand dangerous hazing a felony and provide up to seven-year prison sentences for offenders would send a huge message.

But had Penn State banned Greek organizations from campus altogether in wake of Piazza's death, it could have created the critical mass for a cultural movement akin to "Me-Too," Nuwer said.

Short of that, change will remain incremental. And almost assuredly, hazing deaths will continue, he said.

That's because hazing has powerful allies who want to maintain these dangerous rituals as a rite of passage and treasured tradition, Nuwer said. Chief among these are alumni who make their feelings crystal clear to current fraternity members, he said.

In fact, Nuwer said, alumni have been present at the scene of several hazing deaths across the country.

From left to right, Timothy Piazza's father Jim, mother Evelyn, girlfriend Kaitlin Tempalski, and brother Mike honor the life of student Timothy Piazza during a candlelight vigil hosted by the Interfraternity Council on the Old Main patio in State College, Pa. on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017. Cameron Hart, For PennLive HAR

"What is not in play is curbing the alumni who push all this," Nuwer said. "They have money. They're respected. And they want to keep the status quo. They feel (hazing) serves a purpose. It's tradition. They encourage the behavior."

Then there are the rogue frats.

Nuwer said more and more local chapters are breaking away from their national organizations. One of the chief reasons is the reforms -- especially when it comes to hard alcohol -- that national organizations are implementing in a bid for long-term survival.

These rogue frats can be particularly dangerous, Nuwer said.

"They're totally unregulated," he said. "It's an alcohol-related rebellion. They keep the (frat) names, but there's no national relationship. It's because some of the national fraternities are really working hard (on reform). Their members are looking at them as authority figures. So there are chapters still out of control -- and proud of it. And the schools aren't doing a good enough job handling these rogues. They're reeling from it."

No wonder a recent University of Maine study revealed a full 50 percent of current fraternity and sorority members say they experienced hazing, Nuwer noted.

Of course, the critical question is whether the hazing still going on is dangerous, even deadly.

Nuwer said this thin line can be easily crossed, even during the most harmless-seeming hazing ritual.

"It can happen in a single instant," he said. "When a group gives carte blanche to its members to do something, it only takes one idiot under the influence of alcohol to come up with something."

This is why Nuwer insists the most significant reform would be making dangerous hazing a federal crime, similar to the federal hate crime statute.

Then fraternities and universities would be held accountable, definitions for dangerous hazing and hazing deaths would be clear-cut and the resulting prosecution and punishment, uniform.

Till then, it still falls to a private citizen to gather, investigate and record the grim list of squandered promise and wasted potential that is Nuwer's online listing of hazing's dead.

"I've done this 40 years," he said. "I don't have another 40 years."