Rider University's Dean of Students and the Director of Greek Life are among five people charged in the death of a freshman from alcohol intoxication after a fraternity party at the school.Prosecutors are not disclosing what evidence or testimony led the grand jury to return charges against the university officials. Three fraternity brothers of the deceased were also charged with hazing.
Gary DeVercelly, 18, of Long Beach, Calif., died on March 30.
Mercer County police charged 51-year-old Anthony Cambell, the school's Dean of Students, and 31-year-old Ada Badgley, the Director of Greek Life, with aggravated hazing.
Upon admission to the hospital DeVercelly's blood alcohol content was .426, 5 and a half times higher than the legal limit to drive.
I attended college after having been in the Navy, so my days of drunken debauchery had passed, having learned the hard way a couple of times about the pain of recovering from a drinking binge. While my fraternity had parties (and being one of the few people of age, I bought a fair share of kegs), I was also the one who tended to keep an eye out on things since I had learned to nurse a beer for going on two or three hours. Our parties always features key masters and quite a few Brothers didn't drink so there was never a shortage of drivers to take people home.
It is unfortunate that every year, and it does happen every year, that we hear of this kind of news. A combination of the hubris of the young, lax enforcement and lack of personnel to enforce drinking policies and laws leads to incidents like this. Sadly, DeVercelly is not the first person to die in such an incident and even more sadly, he won't be the last, no matter how hard universities try to curb this behavior.
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