As the National Pan-Hellenic Council celebrates its 125th year, two historically black fraternities and sororities have renewed their Marquette charters.
Although both the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and the Zeta Phi Beta sorority have been active in the past, numerous reasons had caused the organizations to go inactive. Both are now officially recognized as active student organizations after going through the process of rechartering last semester.
The National Pan-Hellenic Council is the national governing body of the nine historically black fraternities and sororities, said Candace Edmond, the council's executive board president and a College of Business Administration junior. Of the nine national organizations, seven have active charters on Marquette's campus.
Both Kappa Alpha Psi and Zeta Phi Beta are part of city-wide chapters including students from other Milwaukee universities.
"There is a need for this type of chapter because of the lack of opportunity to recruit due to the small percentage of African Americans on campus," said Coordinator for Campus Activities and Greek Life Andrew Cleary, a graduate student in the School of Education.
In the past, the National Pan-Hellenic Council has functioned separately from the Interfraternity Council & Panhellenic Association — the other two governing councils of the social Greek organizations on campus, Edmond said. This could be because of the differing styles of recruitment, she said.
According to Edmond, each National Pan-Hellenic Council organization recruits on its own and not in conjunction with the council's other fraternities.
"We have similar standards, but it is mostly up to the individual organization to do recruitment," Edmond said.
This year, however, Edmond said the council was involved in both orientation and a Greek informational meeting early this semester — events it has not always been involved in.
"One of my goals as president of NPHC is to become more active this year," she said.
The Milwaukee chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi — the only one active in the state — now has three of its 15 members from Marquette.
Leslie Stewart, Delta Kappa vice president and Kappa Alpha Psi Marquette representative, said he began the process of rechartering last semester because he was influenced by the fraternity in high school and was disappointed it wasn't active on campus.
Cleary said the fraternity was originally chartered in 1953 and was last active in 1999. He said it seemed to go inactive due to lack of membership.
Stewart, a graduate student in the College of Professional Studies, said he plans to "try and make (the fraternity) as big as possible."
Stewart said the interest level among students at Marquette has risen, thanks in part to a step show at O-Fest and a party in the Alumni Memorial Union early this year.
"We hope to provide more events for African American students at Marquette so they don't feel like there's nothing to do," he said.
The newly activated Zeta Phi Beta sorority has also hit the ground running in its first year back on campus since 2003, including a week of events known as "the BLUInvasion" this week.
Although only one Marquette student is a member of the Milwaukee chapter, three events are scheduled to take place on campus, including a "Ladies Night" in the AMU tonight and a "Bowling Night" in the Annex tomorrow.
Keyuana Irby, Zeta Phi Beta Marquette representative and College of Arts & Sciences junior, was confident about gaining more interest for the sorority on campus.
"I'm not going to be a single member for long," she said. "Pretty soon we're going to have a member increase."
Edmond said she was really excited about the rechartering of both groups.
"It's good to know that these organizations will be here for people to join in coming years," she said.
This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on September 15, 2005.