The National Pan-Hellenic Council held The Divine Experience, a new member presentation, in the Sandy and John Black Pavilion at 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 5. This ceremony marked the initiation of 52 new members to the five participating Black Greek-letter organizations at the University of Mississippi.
The five out of seven active Divine Nine organizations that took new members on Saturday were Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.
Jatoni Donelson, a senior public health and health sciences double major from Tchula, Miss., who serves as the dean of membership for Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., explained the purpose of this weekend’s ceremony.
“The purpose of (the) new member presentation is to announce your membership into an organization in a celebratory way. A new member presentation is also referred to as a probate,” Donelson said. “This new member presentation is such a monumental moment for the new members, because the process and the time they’ve put in to get to the point of a probate is meant to be discrete.”
NPHC President and junior public policy leadership major, MaryKatherine Archer from Vicksburg, Miss., said that the presentation marked the first time that new members publicly shared their NPHC affiliations.
“A big thing in Black Greek-letter organizations is discretion, and I think that’s what gives The Divine Experience so much power, intrigue and excitement, because nobody knows,” Archer said. “So it’s a huge thing for new members, because this is the first time they can be with their other sorority sisters and fraternity brothers. They can wear their letters, and they can throw up their signs and do calls and chants.”
