On Oct. 1, Ohio State University dedicated the new National Panhellenic Council Inc. (NPHC) Plaza, with monuments representing the council’s nine black Greek-letter fraternities and sororities – also known as of Nine Divines. The place is located on the southern oval of Columbus, Ohio Campus by the historic Frank W. Hale Jr. Black Cultural Center, 154 West 12th Avenue.
The adverse conditions in which black people lived inspired the founders of the Divine Nine to create organizations whose impact would be felt both on college campuses and in the broader community. Ohio State’s first chapter of NPHC (Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity) was established on campus in 1911.
The movement of black Greek-letter organizations has become, over the years, a leadership incubator, an avenue for political mobilization and a vehicle for lasting social change, said Melissa Shivers, senior vice president of the State of Ohio for Student Life and a member of Alpha Kappa. Alpha Sorority Inc., one of the Nine Divines.
“These organizations have served as a community builder – especially for students of color,” she said. “Over the years, institutions have said, ‘We want to make sure there is representation from organizations that have made such a difference,’ not just here at Ohio State, but across the state. nationally and internationally, through our service to scholarship, sororities and fraternity – that’s who we are.
The NPHC Plaza is a central space for Black students to explore their sense of self and community and serves as a physical showcase of Ohio State’s commitment to every Buckeye while honoring history, Black heritage and tradition, Shivers said.
“Today we are dedicating a place to these nine historically black Greek-letter organizations so that the students who are currently here, the alumni who are working to cement that history at Ohio State, and then think about the students of the future” , she says. “When they come to visit Ohio State and they drive by and say, ‘What is that? What does it mean?’ we have an incredible story to tell. And I hope that this place represents a sense of belonging that has not always existed in higher education institutions.
Centered on the historic route of the Underground Railroad, the plaza serves as a space that recognizes the contributions and impact of organizations and their members, said Rayonna Booth, a public health graduate student and member of the NPHC chapter of Zeta Phi Beta. Sorority Inc.
As an undergraduate and then NPHC vice president in 2020, Booth said she and new NPHC vice president Devon Stith, along with other members of the organization and staff advisors , had approached Shivers and Ohio State President Kristina M. Johnson with a proposal to build. the place.
“Our entire board at the time had a say,” Booth said. “It was us setting the stage, doing the research, doing the benchmarking.”
Stith said the NPHC Plaza will help raise awareness of NPHC’s mission to empower students of color as well as its community service activities.
“Now we finally have a space where we are visible to the entire campus, to be able to tell our story,” said Stith, a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. and Ohio State graduate in 2020 in consumer sciences who now works as a student activities coordinator.
The plaza is “a common space not only for students in our organizations and part of our community,” Stith said, “but also for the entire greater Black community around campus and for the student community in his outfit “.
Other NPHC chapters are Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc., Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc., Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Inc., and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.
For more information on NPHC Plaza, visit the project page at the Office of Student Life.
