Dozens of WKU students interested in joining a Divine Nine organization gathered in DSU on Thursday to learn more about the different organizations and their rush process.
To start out the Greek 101 session, the group played a round of Kahoot. The questions ranged from WKU NPHC facts to National NPHC facts. Amelia Kolb, assistant director of student activities, also addressed the difference between strolling and stepping.
“Stepping is more like rhythmic stomping and clapping and strolling is more of that staying in a line, uniform dances,” Kolb said. “NPHC life is more than stepping and strolling, that’s something that we want to emphasize as well. Of course it is a fun part of fraternity and sorority life but it is much more than that.”
The Divine Nine are tight knit groups of like-minded individuals. This is largely due to their selective rush process, which looks very different from traditional Greek rush.
Potential new members will attend sessions with their desired fraternity or sorority. PNMs are not required to attend every session, just the ones they are interested in. It is recommended that PNMs do background research on each organization before attending their session. Once accepted by an organization, PNMs must keep it secret from their friends and family until Probate.
“Probate is different for every organization, but the new members who are kind of coming out to the community are going to come in usually with something that is hiding their face and who they are,” Kolb said, “The new members will come out one at a time, they will kind of show their face and their name. They might do a series of performances or shout out their fraternity or sorority history of the organization that they have joined, to show the community ‘I’m in this organization and I know the history.’”
