There are around 580 students that are members of a sorority or fraternity on Longwood’s campus according to Julie Ramsey, the Director of Fraternity and Sorority life (FSL). At the time of writing, nine of those 580 members made up the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC). The NPHC houses the Divine Nine sororities and fraternities. These organizations consist of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc., Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc., Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc., Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc., and Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Inc. Of these organizations, six of them are recognized on campus, but only four of these organizations are currently active on campus. These organizations are Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Zeta Phi Beta, and Delta Sigma Theta.
With NPHC making up about 1.5% of the total FSL membership at the time of writing, NPHC President and member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc., Deamoni Denson, believes that their organizations are not promoted as much as some of the other organizations. “It’s not as visible, it’s not talked about as much. Most students that know, find out from us, but not any credible university source,” Denson said. After reviewing all timeline posts on @longwoodfsl, the official Instagram account for FSL at Longwood, four of the 26 posts since the beginning of last semester have been made about NPHC as of March 20, 2023, and 149 of the 1035 post made since the beginning of the FSL page in 2015 have been about NPHC.
President of the Zeta Xi chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., Myles Johnson, believes Longwood has only just started to support the NPHC organizations. In reaction to an incident that happened at the University of Virginia, Longwood stood in solidarity with Black UVA. At UVA, there was a hate crime reported to campus police. A noose was left around the neck of the Homer statue at the center of UVA’s campus. With the noose being a symbol of the lynching of African Americans, this led students of color to feel unsafe and unwelcome on campus according to a letter written to the administration of UVA from the Black Student Body. This incident highlighted the disparities in the treatment of minority students at predominantly white institutions (PWI). “Greek life has become a little more aware because of the list of demands and the movement that recently happened. I feel like it’s because of that movement that they have become more aware of what we’re trying to do,” Johnson said.
In response to this movement at UVA, members of NPHC and other minority groups on campus created C.H.A.N.G.E and wrote their own letter to Longwood President Taylor Reveley. This letter was published on Nov. 3, 2022 in The Rotunda and covered a list of demands from the coalition. Johnson believes that this is what has caused the uptick in support of the NPHC organizations from College Panhellenic Council (CPC) and Interfraternity Council (IFC) organizations.
Ramsey believes numbers are what plays a large part in the visibility of NPHC organizations on campus. “When you have one of the CPC sororities advertise something, then their members pick up and it gets broadcasted immediately by 50 people. Where one of the NPHC sororities might only get broadcasted by three people,” Ramsey said. Ramsey said that she is willing to give out information whenever a student asks for it. “If there’s a specific one
they’re interested in, I will hand over the information that I have and then forget. Because that’s what you’re supposed to do,” Ramsey said.
The induction process of these organizations is kept very private. When students are interested in these organizations, they are not allowed to inform others until they are crossed and inducted at the end of the process. With the secrecy of these organizations, Denson believes that NPHC doesn’t fit the mold of what Longwood wants their students to see. “The way that NPHC
operates doesn’t really fit the way that what is popular operates, and we don’t really have that same look of 50 or 60 brothers and sisters and glitter and parties. It’s just not the look they want to show to incoming students,” Denson said. Longwood is also home to four Alpha chapters in the CPC and Denson believes this could also be a hindrance when it comes to the promotion of NPHC organizations. “I think it’s because Longwood is home to Alpha chapters of CPC organizations and Longwood, of course, is a PWI,” Denson said.
Even though NPHC is not as advertised, they are still looking to grow. “We’re always looking to grow. But we let our work bring in people,” Johnson said. Recently, Alpha Phi Alpha has crossed their largest line since 1993 of five brothers on Feb. 28.
For more information, you can contact FSL by email at greeklife@longwood.edu or in their office in Upchurch 203.
