DeVercellys aid in first federal anti-hazing act

By Grace Bertrand

For more than a decade, Julie and Gary DeVercelly have called for national attention to hazing in the wake of their son’s passing, Gary DeVercelly Jr., and in December, they finally achieved what they had been fighting for. 

Former President Joe Biden signed into law the first federal anti-hazing legislation on Dec. 23, 2024, a response to the death of Gary DeVercelly Jr. and others who have died as a result of hazing. 

“Gary and I are not political people,” said Julie DeVercelly. “We are just parents who have lost a child unnecessarily, working to make things right so that other students can be safe when they come on campus.” 

The Stop Campus Hazing Act, first introduced in September 2023, requires colleges and universities to disclose reported statistics on hazing incidents, publish information related to incidents and publish information involving anti-hazing policies and prevention programs, according to congress.gov.  

Decades-long battle 

In March 2007, Gary DeVercelly Jr. was killed as a result of a hazing ritual with fraternity Phi Kappa Tau. For the last 18 years, the DeVercellys have placed focus on taking federal action against hazing, and in 2014, they began laying the foundations for their initiative. 

“We’ve been waiting for this for a long time and we’re both just in shock and very emotional,” said Julie DeVercelly. “I went to the cemetery right afterwards just to be with Gary before it closed.”

Alongside the anti-hazing coalition, the DeVercellys have faced many obstacles and challenges in getting the law passed over the years, such as the Higher Education Act, COVID-19 and pushback from the lobbying group, Arnold and Porter, or as they called them, the “frat pack.” 

“Knowing what was right was always kind of our North Star,” said Gary DeVercelly Sr. in what motivated them to keep pushing for the law to be passed. 

Different from the End All Hazing Act, introduced in 2021, the Stop Campus Hazing Act calls for all universities to take more specific actions with their reports and creates a firm, agreed-upon definition of what hazing means. The DeVercellys were able to take parts of the act and combine it with the REACH Act to form the Stop Campus Hazing Act.

While the tragedy of their son happened nearly two decades ago, the DeVercellys explained how the number of hazing deaths identified across the nation have only increased. 

The DeVercellys’ mission and hope is for all universities to recognize the issue before more parents have to bury their children. For them, it starts with holding fraternities accountable for what goes on in their local chapters.  

In a soon-to-be-released docuseries, “Protect the House,” director Daniel Catullo worked with several different families that endured the consequences of hazing first-hand, including the DeVercellys, who have been a part of the film’s production for six years.  

“They were on a mission and they pulled it off,” said Catullo, who filmed the DeVercellys every step of the way in getting the bill passed. 

The years of footage has since been broken up into two parts: the set docuseries that directly calls out the government’s part in allowing hazing to happen and a feature film surrounding the families who lost their children. 

“As we started seeing the story unfold, we started realizing the real heroes in this world are these families,” said Catullo. “The story of them turning their grief into something good and positive was just too powerful not to tell.”

A ‘safer way’

While the new federal law creates transparency between universities and the public, it does not put a stop to the problem entirely. Aware of the impossibility to completely get rid of hazing on campuses, the DeVercellys hope is for the law to dramatically lessen, if not cease, the kind of hazing that causes tragedy and harm. 

“We can start showing an alternative way to do what hazing attempts to do and that is create unity and bonding together,” said Julie DeVercelly. 

In the years since their son’s death, the DeVercellys have worked together with Rider to turn the culture of Greek life around. Their efforts in partnership with the university have always been to ensure another tragedy like theirs never happens at Rider again. 

Last fall, Rider’s Greek Council hosted a march for National Hazing Prevention Week, where all fraternities and sororities walked around Centennial Lake in solidarity.

Vice President of Membership Development for Rider University Greek Council Matteo Vasquez, a junior finance major, was in agreement with the DeVercellys mission to end hazing: “There are safer ways to build bonds. You don’t need to put yourself in any kind of danger or humiliation.”

No longer having residence halls exclusively for fraternities, Rider has since instated an anti-hazing policy that applies to anyone associated with student organizations. The policy requires all faculty, staff, campus security authorities, students and parents to report any hazing allegations to Public Safety. 

“When Gary died, I wanted to see Rider burned to the ground and have the earth salted so that nothing could ever grow there again,” said Gary DeVercelly Sr. “But they saw what happened, they saw what they did wrong and they corrected it. Now if I had a child or grandchild and they wanted to go to Rider, I wouldn’t hesitate and that’s saying something.”