A ceremony will be held for the opening of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, or NPHC, Plaza behind Scripps Hall at Ohio University today.
The project was originally set to open in September 2022 but was delayed due to supply chain challenges and unforeseen site conditions. The event will take place at 4 p.m.
The project is funded by the central university fund. It is also funded by the Division of Student Affairs and was budgeted at $467,000, Samantha Pelham, a university spokesperson, said.
The NPHC is also known as the Divine Nine, which will all be represented within the monument. It consists of historically Black sororities and fraternities. On campus, OU currently has seven active chapters of the nine total.
The project has been in the works since 2016 and was started by former Sorority and Fraternity Life, or SFL, Director Cristan Kardas. It was an initiative to pay homage to the historically Black fraternities and sororities at OU, Chistianne Medrano Graham, current SFL director, said.
OU is a predominantly white institution, or PWI, and organizations such as the Women’s Panhellenic Association, or WPA, and Interfraternity Council, or IFC, have chapter houses to represent their organizations, Graham said. However, NPHC has plots, like the plaza, rather than chapter houses to represent their organization.
“We also have colleges that are called HBCUs, which are Historically Black Colleges and Universities, so at historically Black colleges and universities the fraternities and sororities have these things called plots; it's an item that represents these fraternities on their campus,” Graham said.
The monument had a soft opening at OU’s Black Alumni Reunion in September. Currently, the project still needs signage completed within the plaza and security cameras and lighting installed to make for a more secure area, Pelham said.
“The process of creating the signage for the plaza was also very intricate and required extensive work and engagement with the Pan-Hellenic organizations at both the university and national level,” Pelham wrote in an email. “Each individual organization is represented by one of the nine pillars and includes the organizations’ letters, art and colors.”
Tenia Robson, a senior studying applied nutrition and dietetics, is the president of NPHC. She emphasized the importance of having the correct coloring and lettering perfect within the monument.
“I am just happy they got the coloring and the lettering right because that’s what means … the most,” Robson said.
It became apparent that NPHC chapters were less advertised at OU after seeing multiple other universities in Ohio, including OSU and Bowling Green, giving their NPHC chapters plots, Robson said.
“We don't have any posters around, and we noticed that OSU just got plots,” Robson said. “We don't understand why OU can't give our NPHC plots. We would like to be shown just as much as IFC or WPA.”
The NPHC has been waiting years for this plot due to funding and other unexpected circumstances, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Robson said she was worried the plaza may not be finished until summer and is happy it is completed now.
“This has been in motion for a semester. This is not a new project,” Robson said.
“We're just glad that it's finally finished. We didn't even think it was going to make it to the end of the semester honestly.”
