Oh Um [Applause] [Applause] Um So So Um Foreign Uh Ah Hmm [Applause] Now [Applause] Um [Applause] my [Applause] Uh [Applause] So So My Me Hey [Applause] Hmm Me Is Hmm Like this Good afternoon everyone welcome to the divine nine garden plaza dedication ceremony my name is nyla mathis and i am currently the president sorry does it sound like it’s lagging okay um my name is nyla mathis and i’m currently the president of the epsilon delta chapter of alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated i’m
Also a member of the student inclusion coalition before we begin our program at this time we would like to acknowledge that the university of wisconsin-madison occupies ancestral ho-chuk land a place their nation has called dejoke since time immorial in an 1832 treaty the whole trunk were forced to see
This territory decades of ethical cleansing followed when both the federal and state government repeatedly but unsuccessfully sought to forcibly remove the whole chunk from wisconsin this history of colonization informs our shared future of collaboration and innovation today uw madison respects the inherent sovereignty of the ho-chunk nation along with 11
Other first nations of wisconsin thank you nyla for the acknowledgement my name is israel obi and i’m a member of the beta omicron chapter of kappa alpha psi fraternity incorporated yo and i’m also a co-founder of the student inclusion coalition over the last year nyla and i have served as student leads
For this project and met with various stakeholders throughout the process the national panhellenic council has been uh at the university of wisconsin-madison since 1946 and has been a pillar of community service and strength for the black student population this physical garden plaza located in the heart of campus
Will honor the legacy of nphc chapters and further cultivate a campus community this campus community invests in inclusion and creates a sense of belonging for black students we want to acknowledge and thank those who have supported and advocated for this physical space and sorry you all it’s a little distracting hearing our voice
Many thank yous to the fundraising committee group who have supported us in various giving days thank you to the facilities planning and management group the fraternity and sorority life staff who have supported various communities committees and the planning community that has made today happen next we will have chancellor rebecca blank
Chancellor rebecca blink has served as the chancellor at the university of wisconsin-madison one of the largest research universities in the u.s since 2013 she is an economist who has worked in three different presidential administrations most recently as deputy secretary and acting secretary of the u.s department of commerce under president
Obama chancellor blank holds a doctoral degree from mit and has served on the faculty at princeton northwestern and the university of michigan where she was the dean of ford school of public policy we are so appreciative to have chancellor blank with us today and for her ongoing support of this project
Good afternoon everyone this is our first in-person event on this campus in a year and it is so good to see every one of you we’re coming back to normal i hope soon uh thank you to nyla and israel for all the work that they have done and for hosting this
This afternoon thanks to dr laurie rieser our vice chancellor for student affairs who’s been a tireless advocate for students particularly during this very difficult year thanks to dr cheryl gittins our interim chief diversity officer and a member of delta sigma theta um and thanks to the national panhellenic council
The alumni and council members who’ve advocated for and supported nphc for many decades and thanks of course to the generous donors who are going to make this project possible and i especially want to thank lou holland jr who gave the real leadership gift his father lou holland senior was a
Member of kappa alpha here in madison so this is a unique space that we’re dedicating the plaza here has been planned and organized by students and the students are leading the fundraising effort five years ago we did a campus climate survey to help us understand how different students were experiencing the university
Again and again our students of color told us not a surprise i’m tired of being the only person with brown skin in every class i want to be able to look around and see people who look like me we’re working hard to bring more diverse faculty staff and students onto this campus and
We have more work to do but attracting diverse people to campus isn’t enough we have to be intentional about making them feel welcome and included and that starts with creating spaces where every person can see themselves and be themselves the divine nine garden plaza is as an example
This space is going to anchor one of the busiest corridors as you can see on campus thousands of people who pass through here are going to learn about the history and the impact of nphc chapters for many it will be the first time that they’ve heard of black greek life at uw and
Although black fraternities and sororities have been on campus for 75 years they have often been left out of the university’s official history for others being here will be like seeing an old friend in an unexpected place and feeling instantly at home for all of us today
The divine nine garden plaza will be a reminder of the values that nphc and uw madison share a commitment to education community building public service and creating connections between people for all of you who’ve played a role in bringing this dream to life thank you i look forward to watching
This garden plaza come together and is celebrating a grand opening in the very near future now let me welcome our vice chancellor for student affairs lori research laurie thank you chancellor blank it’s so good to be with everybody today and especially to be celebrating this milestone with you in person
You guys are right the sound is weird this recognition has been a long time coming the first nphc chapters in the state of wisconsin were started at uw madison they have provided our black students an important anchor connection and family for decades but there are no mphc affiliated houses or markers at uw-madison
No visible sign that they are here and often sadly nothing is shared publicly about their contributions to our community they’ve never had a space to call their own on campus that is about to change i’m proud of our student leaders kayla nyla israel your fellow and phc members and our student inclusion
Coalition most of whom are part of the mphc family for the work they have put in realizing this space yes absolutely this was a project that a fraternity and sorority community identified years ago as a need for our campus and that nphc alumni have supported it’s because of your advocacy and dedication
To seeing it through that we are here today i’m also proud of your fellow councils the multicultural degree council panhellenic association and inner inter-fraternity council you’ve come together alongside to raise funds in creative ways to support the project every dollar brings us closer to making the space a reality
And we still have more to go but mark ruthier will be speaking about the fundraising effort a little bit later thank you to all who have already given and if you haven’t there’s still time this is a movement happening across the country to create spaces on university campuses acknowledging the contributions of the
Denial nine to the black student experience generations of badgers have found an nphc a safe and welcoming place to be themselves to succeed academically to lead and to make lifelong connections all the way to the vice presidency of the united states and we know vice president harris has some
Connections to madison but she wasn’t a badger but she is a proud member of alpha alpha sorority incorporated at a university as large and dispersed as uw madison the mphc community has played an important role in our students lives and in the lives of many of our colleagues and campus leaders it’s time
We honor that legacy this entire project has been student-driven and student-led and so to our student leaders here and listening today i want you to know that this is your place to call home to be seen for the amazing work you do and to be celebrated for all you have been
All you are and all you will be to come on wisconsin i am not next pretty smart group here um mark goofier you are next up am i apologize about that um thank you for those words dr reeser we have appreciated your support of nphc throughout this process
And for your advocacy on behalf of students good afternoon everyone my name is kayla cotton and i am the current 2020 to 2021 national panhellenic council president and a member of the epsilon delta chapter of alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated i want to thank those who have paved the way for nphc
To be present on campus and the council continues to be the cornerstone for the survival of black and brown communities as we celebrate and honor this space today we also want to honor the rich history of our organizations due to kova 19 restrictions we are going to show a video
As a weight of our chapters to represent strength and unity through these difficult times from folks who share personal stories to a few of our chapters stepping and strolling please direct your attention to the screen as we present to you the video i think one of the biggest things i
Noticed when i got to this campus was that there was nothing that was visible that made me feel like i belonged here and when i got to this school i didn’t even know that nphc was here i didn’t even know that that was something that they had at this campus
And it wasn’t until that i got invited to an event that i even knew that black greek orgs existed and i think that as i’ve gone through school here i’ve just realized how much that underrepresentation and that not being publicly recognized as students of color and as a black student
Hurt my experience here and i think that adding a physical landmark for the national panhellenic council for for black greek awards would do wonders for black students here and making them feel like they belong and it will also help students who are thinking about coming to the university
Want to come to the university more because they see that the school represents uh black students and students of color in a better way than it has before again the only thing we really had when i got here the only place i knew of was the black cultural center which is in
The red gym but most people don’t even know about that and you don’t see that when you go on the the tour of the campus um you don’t see that when you come on campus and just walk around right you have to find it and i think having a visibly
Open landmark that is for students of color would really help students feel like they belonged here and helped them want to go here a lot more So I think that having plots here on campus for me as well as the other greeks as well as all students of color it means we belong Sounds so sweet to me sounds five girls get together to evolve Yo yo woof Thank you this is a serious matter yes yes Is she pretty Go up what an amazing and inspiring video presentation by the students of the nphc chapters here at uw madison thank you kayla for your leadership this year i’m mark guthier associate vice chancellor for student affairs in my role i have the pleasure to work with all the student leaders from our
Fraternity and sorority chapters here on campus in particular this year with the leaders from the student inclusion coalition who asked me to find who asked us to find a better way to represent the history and contributions of our bra black greek letter organizations so as to erase the invisibility they so often experience
I want to thank my campus partners whose contributions have made today possible the staff of our fraternity and sorority life team standing over here wave uh from fpnm uh gary brown and aaron williams there they are back there uh members of the student affairs cabinet jake gabe christina argyle thank you all for
Being here and our student affairs advancement team kelly dehaven and kate are both with us today kate schnorr however the highlight of my work on this project has been getting to know nyla and israel i can still envision the first meeting we had on this idea sitting in my office
Not knowing each other very well at all but hoping we’d come to a common understanding of what was desired and what was possible i don’t think any of us could have imagined that we could come up with what you’re going to see here in a few minutes and then we’ll be
Dedicating the result of their hard work just days before they graduate but here we are their persistence professional approach and hard work between our meetings kept this project focused reminder emails from nyla were often received in our sights and possible thank you israel nyla for your personal commitment of time
And creativity that has made this plaza a reality because of you future generations of students will no longer be able to say that they don’t know about the divine nine thank you i’m also extremely appreciative of the support from not only all the current and phd students but
Also the support for this project from the student leaders in all of our other fsl councils the interfraternity council the panhellenic association and the multicultural greek council our fundraising efforts to date have included broad cross-council support from students in all of our fraternity and sorority life chapters there is a collective commit commitment
To this project to see it through an investment by all fraternity and sorority life members in the importance and significance of the divine nine plaza to their brothers and sisters in the nphc the overall cost of this project is estimated at 250 000 we recently launched our most public fundraising efforts with alumni
In coordination with the day of the badger on april 6th and 7th ifc pha nphc and mgc launched their efforts around the same time in just a few weeks we’re happy to announce we’re closing in on forty thousand dollars we have more to do and we’re hoping you’ll be able to join us
Either personally or by spreading the word after this event stop by the table over here you can get information on one of the most recent student fundraisers which is a uh project with kendra scott jewelers so uh information will be over here and then kelly dehaven from the foundation
Will be over there wave kelly should be happy to talk to you as well to honor those that support this project we’ll be recognizing donors and groups of donors who commit over a thousand dollars with recognition on this very site so if that seems interesting to you
Also come see us please consider joining us as we officially break ground on this important project next fall now i’m pleased to ask nyla and israel to return to the stage thank you thank you mark for those great remarks now the moment you’ve all been waiting for
The design reveal our team has selected smith group as the design team and we’re fortunate to have their creativity and understanding of the significance and importance of nphc in this process thank you smith group for your work and supporting us with this project we are very excited to share the most current design
Of the divine nine garden plaza on the screen the design is focused on highlighting both the individual stories of nine organizations that are part of mphc and the collective unity amongst our groups each organization will have an individual pillar that includes their organizational name crest and for organizations that have been chartered
On campus their charter members and chapter name will appear can we get another applause for the design so now that you’ve seen a design please join us in leaving our mark as we ground break for the divine line garden plaza after the groundbreaking we will have our closing remarks to end the ceremony
Today oh [Applause] [Applause] so as we close today’s ceremony we would like to thank our guests for being here to commemorate the milestone at the university of wisconsin-madison we are excited for the future of the national paneling council and for the finalized project in the fall of 2021
Nyla and i are grateful for having the opportunity to be your mcs and for being the student leads of this project we hope that you are able to visit the site in the future when construction has been completed stay tuned for future announcements and celebrations on this project throughout the fall and summer
We have a few logistics to review as we close and can we get the next slide the screen now shows two qr codes one that will direct you to our giving page and one that links to our current kendra scott fundraising effort as a reminder if you make a purchase at kendra scott
By the end of today using our unique leak link and code 20 of your purchase will go to our fundraising efforts once again thank you for everybody for coming and if all mphc members could go by the groundbreaking area so we can get a photo thank you thank you So Um [Applause] um
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