Capstone Story: The Extinction of the Divine Nine at WSU

It’s only one currently active on campus there have been chapters in the past but you know people graduate circumstances changes delta sigma theta sorority is the only black chapter and the only divine nine member left here at wsu for the longest time wsu greek row has been dominated by predominantly white greek organization

However there was a time where most of the divine nine was here on campus and very active there was uh just about everybody so um as far as the fraternity side alphas were on the campus sigmas were on the campus um kappas queues and eventually even iota’s as far

As the sororities there were deltas there were akas there were zetas and there were sigma gamma rho so yeah just about all the divine nine was on campus boston says that when he was in school all the black chapters participated in all kinds of activities here at wauzou including step shows volunteer

Activities and other big gatherings but in 2008 boston’s last year at wsu he started to notice a change yeah so i think majority of people were there but the numbers were definitely doing it they were starting to get smaller and smaller by the time i left

The biggest question is why did most of the black greek organizations go extinct on campus multicultural student center staff member charles ross says it’s all about interest and sustainability it’s like comes down to like entrance and interest and then like are they going to be sustainable you know it’s hard to have like

Organizations where you only have like one active member and the club is like what happens when that member graduate i’ve been in conversations with the fraternity about all across the west coast um people are having harder and harder times getting members into the organization i’m taking speaking

Specifically of omega sound five now it is disappointing that there is only one black chapter here at wsu but if all of the divine nine were here at wauzou would there really be any interest in students joining them this is a question that i asked several students during my investigation of this issue

I think i would i’m actually an athlete so right now i wouldn’t because i’m like committed to my sports but i think i would because it is a predominantly white school yes i would because honestly joining black fraternity be pretty fun my uncle he did one when he

Went to hbcu usually the black fraternity on campus i would definitely join it because first of all is um the way to like meet i’ll take meet people of color and get to like know more people now there are a lot of benefits to being a part of a

Greek organization in the divine line delta sigma theta member kyla mark says that being in her sorority has helped her a lot i would say just being able to connect to people they kind of understand like what it’s like to be a member of the sorority and like you know balance

School and everything like that so i often turn to people for advice especially um because they know they’ve been through it so just to kind of get a little more guidance but it’s been really great so far while there are still questions left to be answered about why most of wsu’s

Black chapters have been inactive the biggest thing is at some point students and staff members of color would like to see some of those organizations back on campus with mural news 8 i’m jacoby wright

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