Plaza recognizes impact NPHC has made on campus, community
On Oct. 1, The Ohio State University dedicated the new National Pan-Hellenic Council Inc. (NPHC) Plaza, with monuments representing the council’s nine Black Greek-letter fraternities and sororities – also known as the Divine Nine. The plaza is located on the South Oval of Ohio State’s Columbus campus by the historic Frank W. Hale Jr. Black Cultural Center, 154 W. 12th Ave.
The adverse conditions under which Black people lived prompted the founders of the Divine Nine to create organizations whose impact would be felt both on college campuses as well as in the wider community. The first NPHC chapter (Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity) at Ohio State was chartered on campus in 1911.
The Black Greek-lettered organization movement has, over the years, become an incubator for leadership, an avenue for political mobilization and a vehicle for sustained social change, said Melissa Shivers, Ohio State’s senior vice president for student life and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., one of the Divine Nine.
“These organizations served as a community builder – in particular, for students of color,” she said. “Over the years, institutions have said, ‘We want to make sure that there is representation of the organizations that have made such a difference,’ not just here at Ohio State, but nationally and internationally, through our service to scholarship, sisterhood and brotherhood – that’s who we are.”
