3, 2, 1. – It’s almost, I wanna say, the biggest thing that has happened on campus in years, in my opinion. This will be a symbolic moment that will represent the National Pan-Hellenic Council here at The Ohio State University, also known as the Divine Nine which will show a representation of essentially who we are,
What we do, the populations we serve, and to show campus that we are here. ♪ Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies♪ – The National Pan-Hellenic Council is the collective organization for the nine historically black fraternities and sororities that were chartered nationally and all here on this campus at Ohio State.
This plaza has been built to dedicate a space to these organizations that have been making impact on this campus for the last hundred years. So now we finally have a space where it’s visible to the entire campus to be able to tell our story and to be able to have a communal space
For not only students in our organizations as part of our community, but across the greater black community around campus and the student community as a whole. – When President Johnson and I arrived, I wanted to make sure that she had an opportunity to visit with our student leaders and the National Pan-Hellenic Council membership, the senior leadership, had a conversation with us and they talked about why this plaza was important, why having representation at Ohio State mattered.
In particular, in alignment with Hale Hall. When we got off the call, President Johnson said, “We should do it.” And I said, “Absolutely we should. You can’t tell those students, no.” I mean, they’ve done all of the homework and all of the… they gave such great reasoning for why this mattered.
– They made a simple request to fulfill a hundred year old dream to create a space that would honor the Divine Nine. The actualization of the NPHC Plaza is one of the many reasons why Ohio State is such an amazing place, because where there is a great idea,
There are Buckeyes who will find a way to make it happen. – Hey, this is something that we think is gonna be very important and very impactful for our people. And luckily, the university backed us a hundred percent and they were very supportive since the beginning.
– And as a member of an NPHC sorority, I also have a lot of pride in both what the student had been able to do, but also the fact that we are now gonna be recognized at a place like The Ohio State. It’s just incredible. – This was just literally the foundation
Of showing the black community that it is possible to have a space. You just have to advocate and ask for that space, right? So this space particularly is dedicated to the Divine Nine, but we still have that little to small population of black students on campus
Who are still trying to find themselves and who they are and how they belong on this campus. So I am hoping that this will be also a representation to the whole black community, saying like, “This is not just a space for us. This is a space that we fought for
As a black community together and let’s keep fighting for additional space or additional ways to be seen on campus.”
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