Sheilah Vance

I’m usually not good with keeping incredible things to myself. So here’s a inside scoop about this new film.

On June 10th, the film 4000 days will have a world premiere at the Tribeca Festival. The documentary chronicles the struggles of three families whose personal tragedies became the center of a nationwide push for legislative reform around hazing.

I appear in this film. I know these families. I walked the halls of Congress with them.

During my four terms as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Clery Center, I worked alongside these families to educate members of Congress about why federal hazing legislation was necessary.

The clock was running. The bill needed to pass before the 118th Congress adjourned on December 31, 2024. If it did not, we would lose the bipartisan coalition we had spent years building, and the families would have to start over under a new Congress and a new administration.

The film, directed by Daniel E. Catullo III and produced by 10 Lives Studios, tells the story of how those families turned grief into sustained, strategic action.

The Stop Campus Hazing Act (SCHA) became law because of them.

How the Principles from my Threshold Framework Played a Role in Passing the SCHA

While working to push Congress to pass the SCHA, I was finishing my book Threshold to Valley Forge: The Six Days of the Gulph Mills Encampment and developing The Threshold Framework.

These are five leadership principles drawn from studying the Continental Army’s six critical days at Gulph Mills before the march to Valley Forge.

The parallels to the SCHA fight were not abstract. I applied each principle in real time.

Clarity Under Pressure. Students were still dying from hazing despite a patchwork of state laws. Competing bills had stalled for years. We had one objective: educate enough members of Congress to get the bill passed before the session ended.

Morale as Strategy. Every trip to Capitol Hill required the families to hold up photos of their children and tell their stories again. I could not eliminate that pain, but I could make sure they felt supported. With our Executive Director and our Board members Julie and Gart DeVercelly, whose son Gary Jr. died in 2007 as a result of a fraternity hazing ritual at Rider University, and who were the principal sponsors and advocates of the SCHA, I hosted a dinner for all the families in my condominium in Washington, giving them a quiet space to gather. No one had done that before.

Geography Matters. I was the only member of our Clery Center team on the Hill actively working in higher education administration. My role was to testify from direct experience that the SCHA’s requirements were not burdensome. Institutions already compiled annual crime reports under the Clery Act. Adding hazing as a reportable category was one additional line. The SCHA’s other requirements grounded what many responsible institutions were already doing in research-based, campus-wide prevention and awareness programs.

Delay Is a Decision. We had bipartisan cosponsors, momentum, and a closing window. A presidential election was approaching. Waiting was not neutral. It was risk.

Symbolic Leadership. I could have stayed at a distance and let our Board members do this work that they had been doing for over ten years.  Instead, I took time off from work to walk the halls of Congress with the families. I was on the floor of a large hearing room at the House of Representatives when the SCHA was voted out of committee. People watch where leaders stand.

The bill passed. The Stop Campus Hazing Act became law.

Every institution eventually reaches a threshold moment. The families in 4000 Days reached one and chose to lead.

4000 Days premieres June 10 at the Village East by Angelika in New York City, with additional screenings June 11 and June 14. Tickets at tribecafilm.com.

For more on The Threshold Framework and how it applies to leadership in your organization, contact me at svanceauthor@gmail.com or visit thresholdtovalleyforge.com.

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