All righty so i think we’re going to go ahead and get started um so welcome we’re so happy that you could join us today for our culturally based fraternity and sorority live q a session my name is stephanie and i am the president of the multicultural great council
In this live q a um and i will be giving some background information about culturally based fraternities and sororities at osu how you can join an organization cover frequently asked questions and of course answer your specific questions so i’m going to go ahead and pass it over to trenton
How you doing my name is trenton joyner and i am a member of phi beta single fraternity incorporated and i’m serving as a representative for the national panhellenic council as we continue through our time together please keep in mind that the coven 19 global pandemic can possibly affect some dates and
Future event formats so for more information about our remote operations and how our community operations have been impacted by the pandemic please visit the website oregonstate.edu cfso good evening everyone my name is kelsey elam guiding and i serve as the coordinator in the center for returning sorority
Life i’m one of three full-time staff members that’s here to support this amazing community and we’re joined tonight by our also by our director leslie i’m going to let her say hello really quickly thanks kelsey and thanks so much steph and trenton for having me um i’m leslie chadre i’m
The associate dean of students and director of the center for fraternity life i am delighted that you’ve chosen to check out our culturally based fraternities and sororities which are a rich part of our fraternity and sorority experience at osu we do have a third staff member our associate director
J.p peters who is our mgc and nphc advisor and i do want to highlight that he’s on our team as well so we’ll turn it back over to kelsey thanks so much so as we go through the presentation tonight stephanie and trenton are going to share how you
Can join and all sorts of great information about mgc and phd organizations and at the end we’ll take any questions that you have so you’ll see on your screen a q a feature you can go ahead and type any questions that you have into there
As you um as they come to mind or you can wait to the end and leslie and i will be monitoring that q a and then we’ll um moderate the section at the end so that stephanie and trenton can answer your questions um if you have any trouble um
With zoom or something feel free to pop that in the chat and leslie and i can help you but be sure to put your questions in the q a so that we can get those answered for you at the end of this session but right now i’m going to turn
It back over to stephanie and trenton to take it away cool thank you um so to begin i’ll provide a brief overview of the national pendleton council also known as the divine nine the national penalty council encompasses historically black fraternities and sororities um npac fraternities and sororities uh were first founded
Mostly in the early 1900s during a period of racial inequality when black people were not allowed to be a part of ifc or phc organizations so the first mphc chapter at oregon state was kappa alpha psi fraternity incorporated we currently have three mphc chapters that have undergraduate members in them right now
There are two fraternities phi beta sigma and kappa alpha psi and one sorority alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated there are five additional chapters that have charters at oregon state university but they just don’t currently have undergraduate members there are still opportunities to join these inactive chapters
And so if you have questions about how to do that you can refer to some of the information on our cfso website none of the npac organizations or chapters um at oregon state have houses but they often meet in the lonnie b harris black cultural center
A fun fact about the the black cultural center on campus is that lonnie b harris was actually a member of kappa alpha psi and he was uh one of the members that brought that chapter to oregon state chapter sizes for npac chapters are typically a bit smaller
But chapters are always eager to grow and they’re always very um active on campus and in the community um and it’s not you don’t have to be black to join uh in phd organizations our chapters are all inclusive and they’re welcoming to anyone of any background great thank you so the multicultural
Greek council is the governing council for multicultural and culturally based fraternities and sororities which include planet x asian interest and native american based chapters multicultural greek organizations first arose in the 1980s and 1990s when immigration rates and the number of students of diverse backgrounds enrolled in university increased
Nationwide and the first mgc group at osu is actually gamma alpha omega sorority and currently our council consists of three mgc sororities which are alpha pi omega a native american based chapter gamma alpha mega a latina founded chapter in kappa delta chi a latina founded chapter we also have three
Mgc fraternities which are sigma beta rho a south asian interest chapter omega delta phi a latino founded chapter and new campus this fall is lambda phi epsilon which is an agent interest chapter and if you’re interested in becoming a founding father of lambda phi epsilon please feel free to contact the cfsl or
Anyone else who is on the panel today and like nphc chapters are typically smaller but we always look to grow and have new members and none of the multicultural groups have chapter houses but we often meet at one of our cultural re cultural and resource centers on campus
Such as the native american longhouse the asian and pacific cultural center and many more and our council has a strong connection to social justice principles so you don’t have to identify as a member of a certain cultural group to join one of our chapters all are welcome and encouraged to explore
All that we have to offer and then of course nphc and mgc are just two of five governing councils or communities within our fraternity and sorority life and if you don’t find what you’re looking for in a culturally based group there is plenty more to explore
And so i’m going to highlight the rest of our councils right now and so we have the collective greek council or cgc which are academic interest sororities um they used to have fraternities and sometimes during um other periods um we have both but currently only have sororities
And they have a close affiliation with academic colleges or individual majors they have four stories currently um one of each with agricultural focus science interests engineering focus and design interest and then we also have in a fraternity council or ifc which is the governing council for 23 fraternities and they generally
Generally have house chapters but we do have some ifc chapters that do not have chapter facilities so if you are looking for something unhoused there are some chapters within the ifc community that do not also have the chapter facilities and then lastly is a panoramic council or phc which is the governing council
For osu’s 11 house sororities and of course if you’re interested in exploring more you can learn more about each council and their chapters on the cfsl website so i’m going to turn it back over to trenton to give some details regarding the joining process thank you stephanie becoming involved
And joining one of our multicultural greek council or national panhellenic council chapters is slightly different and it occurs to a different process called membership intake if you are interested in joining an mgc or nphc sorority or fraternity at oregon state the best way to get involved would be to attend as many
Council-sponsored programs as you can definitely and don’t be a stranger each individual ngc and nphc organization hosts various programs and activities on campus throughout the year and by attending these programs and activities you can introduce yourself to members a fraternity or sorority that you’re interested in and you can let
Them know that you’d like to learn more about their organization another great way to learn more about mgc and mphd organizations is to consult the internet there is a wealth of knowledge on the internet about all the fraternities and sororities and all of our mgc and npac organizations have national websites
So you can go to the national website and learn just a ton of information about each organization individually as well as the councils as a whole yeah and each chapter will hold their own membership intake process and as a general rule several mgc and nphc organizations
Do not accept students who don’t have an established gpa so it really is always best to check with the individual chapter that you’re interested in about their own intake process and their joining requirements as we’re talking about um all of these ways to get involved in the show interest
Uh the mphc would like to invite you all to attend um the mphc informational and trivia night on september 29th at 7 00 pm in memorial union 109. this is a free program there’s an opportunity for you to hear about each nphc fraternity and sorority as well as
Just ask questions about the individual chapters and you can rsvp to attend this event on our website the cfso website um mdc will also be holding um a recruitment event which will be our meet and greet on september 23rd that’ll be at 6 pm and that’ll be on the
Weather for blonde or just kind of behind weatherford and you can meet members of mbc chapters and learn more about joining and so we can’t really we can’t wait to meet you and be sure to rsvp on our website right so now that we’ve tried to let you
Know what our groups are and how you can um get it show interest and ultimately join them uh we want to share uh some some things that sort of make the cultural um based greek experience a little bit different and unique many of the traditions that both mgc and nphc share
Stem from mphc history and culture and one way that we kind of show pride in our organizations is to throw up our hand signs and use specific poses that are distinct to our groups we have chants and calls as well that allow us to kind of show our pride and
Our presence when it comes to different events that we have going on so yeah and some other traditions would include like line names or nicknames um so the term line or line is is a term that refers to a new member class that joins or crosses and there’s a lot of different
Verbiage that we use so crosses is when a line or a member would join during a specific term so members of a line may receive receive a line number or a live line name that defines them as a sister or brother of that organization so for example i am parenting iatk
Number one and this information and the lor the chapter letters can be displayed on member jackets another aspect of our culture comes from stepping and strolling so stepping is is a historical tradition where members you sort of use their bodies as instruments to create beats um stomping clapping
Jumping chanting all different kind of things strolling is a synchronized dance that’s typically done in a line in unison with other members multicultural greeks have been known to take part in both stepping and strolling but they predominantly stroll to show the respect and honor to the npc organizations
That paved the way for the in for the mgc uh groups to exist so members stepping stroll at different events including new member presentations yara stroll yard shows stroll competitions other celebrations and simply just at any time just to you know show their pride and their excitement
Right so now that you’ve heard what makes a culturally based greek experience so different and unique let’s get to some questions so we just kind of pulled some questions that we’ve had in the past or we had when we were joining and if you have any questions
That are in your brain right now you can feel free to start sending them to us and we’ll collect them and answer them in a second but we’re just going to kind of go over some of the ones that we get most often so to start when we receive
Is why did you join an nphc or an mgc group and i’ll just share my own personal experience so i’m a transfer student and i’m from albuquerque new mexico and when i got here i didn’t feel like i connected or really knew what i was doing on campus i became really interested in
Joining a sorority and i was actually able to explore chapters in each of the councils and it wasn’t really until i learned about mgc is where um and mdc chapters or in general multicultural groups that i kind of found a space where i’m comfortable with my cultural identity
And i met people who had the same goals and aspirations as myself and so something that really drew me in about culturally based groups where that they were very dedicated to service and social justice giving back to my community and fighting injustices is something that i’m really passionate about
And joining an mgc group just through that has helped me become more active in those as well and give me a platform and a community to be able to speak to different people about issues and work with them to create change and so for me joining mgc group really elevated
My college career and has given me a home away from home being how many thousand miles away yeah um so i had a little bit of a similar journey i’m originally from charlotte north carolina and so coming to oregon just in oregon state itself was very different for me
Um and so i it was very important that i found um a home within the black community at oregon state especially being in a new place understanding that it wasn’t very big and so um in that community i kind of met people that you know made me feel at home made me
Feel like i um like i belonged um and one of those people that sort of took me under their wing when i got to school was a member of my organization of phi beta sigma and so just understanding you know who he was and um learning more about the organization i was already
Um i already had knowledge about npac just because of where i came from um or understanding the rich history um that these organizations uh represented understanding the work that they do in their communities understanding the the emphasis on leadership and academic excellence and just being you know just being leaders and within
The community giving back to the community um was something that appealed to me is something that i felt gave me the opportunity to be a part of something that was larger than myself at the time when i got to campus we didn’t have a chapter on campus so seeing being part of bringing
A chapter to uh my campus um being sort of that’s a historical feat and so being a part of that really you know went a long way to encourage me to to take part um so really just seeing the benefits of being able to you know give
Back um and be a part of something larger myself and represent something that that meant something to me and push along a cause i believed it uh was something that that went a long way from in my understanding or my decision to join as well as just the culture was just
Great and i had a ton of fun and i knew i would so it was great great thank you for sharing trenton um just kind of moving on um another question we get are what are some benefits of joining so some benefits of joining are like for unsaid leadership opportunities of course
Academic support that you get from your brothers and sisters and other members of the community as well as focus on community service or philanthropy another part is social connection which is a really big part of the experience like i said meeting other people and connecting and working on
Something larger than yourself so you know students who feel connected to other students are more likely to persist at university and remain through graduation yeah i would agree um you hit all of the i think all of the big things on the head it’s an opportunity to surround yourself
With people that that will make you better in every sense of the word and people that you know really care about you you know iron sharpens iron another really big benefit of joining is that you um ricardo can become part of a national and offered oftentimes international um network of people that will
Stand up for you that will take care of you um you know there’s there’s there’s a a national family of people that you know are united by their letters i could fly to any place in the country in many places across the world um and if i made some phone calls ahead
Of time there will be someone there who would you know take me in and take care of me and watch over me give me a place to stay and food to eat that never met me but they know you know what i represent because of letters i
Have on i think that’s a huge benefit um and just the network the network building opportunities um professionally in any way you can name is is great yeah thank you for adding that trenton um especially since um i guess a lot of people have this idea that you know joining
Um authority or fraternity is maybe only a college affair but really when you’re joining one of these organizations it’s a lifelong commitment or you become a brother or sister of this organization for for life and you see members who like saying you know they’re in different professions they live around the world
And they really do like to be active and continuing to support their collegiate chapters so i think that that’s also something that was really important about mgc and phd groups is that their alumni are very very involved and yeah that just kind of aspect of taking care wanting to still be active
It’s something that i really find endearing and i can’t wait till i graduate i know kind of thing sounds like bad but i can’t wait till i graduate so that i can also become an alum that looks after other chapters and helps my sisters when i’m also out of school right
Exactly so another frequently asked question we get is how much does it cost which is a very important question the cost to join nphc organizations varies from in organization to organization and oftentimes these fees are subject to change at any time they don’t often change but you know it’s possible because these
Organizations exist under a national umbrella each chapter there is a significant portion of those funds that go towards the national organization that goes towards things like you know require conferences and conventions local chapter dues um and just various items that are also needed for the membership intake process so the average range to
Join an mphc organization is anywhere between a thousand dollars to three thousand dollars um depending on the group but it’s important to understand you know where your interests lie and understanding what those specific numbers are and how to create a plan to get there right and similar to nphc mgc chapters
Typically have an initiation cost that also goes to the various expenses that um trent had listed earlier and then after that we have activation or annual dues which can range from about 200 to 300 which is about maybe like a hundred dollars per term for um mgc groups um so
The next question we kind of get is how do i show interest so in addition to attending council and chapter program events community service pro projects or programs most of our groups will host informational or interest meetings that will allow you to gain more information about their organizations
And their chapter and you can express interest in their fraternity assorted at those times and if a particular group you are interested in you can get in contact with them through email or social media that’s a good i think that’s kind of the first way to kind of make that connection
And start meeting more members of the chapter like i said earlier it’s going to be a lifelong commitment so um it’s really important that you know you feel very comfortable with the people who you’re interested in joining and becoming their brother or sister for
A lifetime um so you can find all of our chapter profiles and contact information um of each of the groups that maybe might be interested in on the cssl website and like i said again i encourage you to explore as many groups and meet as many members as you can
Like i said just because you’re going to spend a whole lifetime with them hopefully and you know find a place where you can call your forever home like i did and tran and i did and you know everyone else who has joined our great community so far um but yeah i definitely recommend
Definitely attending those and kind of breaking the ice i know it’s really hard but from my experience um the community has just been nothing but warm and welcoming and they just want to make sure that you find a place where you can be happy and finish out your college career onto
Whatever you may tackle in the future yeah i would definitely 100 agree the the most important thing when you’re trying to show interest is building um sincere genuine relationships you know you want to get to know people for who they are um even if you know you might have
Interest in their organization you want to get to know them first that’s kind of the basis of you know the the love the brotherhood of sisterhood that we hold paramount is the the personal relationships that we have um and you want to show that you’re a part of you know these these um
Community service projects or different programs that they’re doing on campus because you want to do things you want to make sure there are things that appeal to you and things that you want to do you know because if you’re if you have interest you want to eventually be the person doing those
Things and so taking part of the shows to yourself and to the organization members that you know this is something that i enjoy i enjoy the specific community service they do i enjoy the specific um programs on campus that they do i enjoy the fun aspects of their organization you want
To know all these things as a means to show interest so those personal relationships are huge so i believe now we’re going to take the opportunity to answer some of the questions that we’ve been asked yeah so i have some questions here for the two of you
So first off when is the latest you can rsvp for either of your council’s fall events and do they cost any money to attend or participate that’s it for either of you you know i’ll go ahead and answer first um yeah you can rsvp up to the date um there is really no
Deadline we just want to be able to know how people are coming and kind of keep that account again we’re in the middle of a pandemic so we want to be very conscious of our numbers and keeping people safe as we continue the recruitment process
And it’s free of course we just want to be able to meet you have you meet us and hopefully create those bonds which last lifetime all right i’m not sure stephanie said it but the events are free to participate in so there’s no cost to come just come and
Hang out and enjoy yourself and learn something and meet some people yeah if you are at all interested in either of these councils i would recommend just filling out those rsvp forms now just a google form but asking for your name and some contact information so that way you can start to receive
Information from the council and any updates that might happen um given the uncertainty for this fall so you’ll be the first to know if you sign up for those rsvp forms it’s just an interest form there’s no um nothing like that’s binding to anything by filling out that form great question
All right here’s some more um what are some typical events that your um organizations and councils host throughout the year what do people have to look forward to uh yeah i can go first um there’s a wide range and it depends sort of we do council events so for the mphc we do
Full mphc events um as well as each individual organization does their their own events so in the nphc we’ve had all kinds of stuff we’ve had like barbecues that we’ve thrown um we’ve had some academic um events like bowling nights that we’ve hosted i think the mphc and the mgc host um
Like co-host bowling nights a couple times too uh so we really we’ve had uh opportunities to um we’ve done uh community service so we’ve gone out and and put together like sandwich bags and giving them out to people that are suffering from homelessness um we’ve you know worked in gardens and
All kinds of stuff um and then my organization in particular we do a wide range of things um from community service to such as you know raising money for you know american cancer society march of dimes we have a an event every year where we collect supplies and food and things for
People suffering from from homelessness as well as you know um things that are more fun you know game nights and um you know we have academic um focused events as well we host a regular study hall for people to come and study um the mphc
Has had you know a couple of couple of get-togethers of parties things of that nature so there’s a wide range of things that everybody does yeah um there’s not much to add on to that because uh npc and nbc they they do do similar things um and we do
Do a lot of things together as well uh like tran was saying bowling night or game night um we are very close in the community our chapters are a lot smaller and we’re able to meet a lot more people and kind of build those those bonds in a really um intimate and
You know thoughtful meaningful way when we’re a little bit smaller um yeah but mgc does very similar things try and do service we usually have maybe a community dinner where we invite all members from our council to just come grab food and maybe just listen to some information that we
Have or any updates they kind of do things informally or have a neonite which is kind of something we do annually which is a way to connect new members who join throughout the year they might join in the falls bring our winter term and we just want to be able to kind of
Make sure that we’re still a close community and we all kind of know who we are um who each other in our orgs are so we don’t really get too distance we have that time to bond and really learn about each other um yeah and i definitely just disagree
That try and pretty much hit the nail on the head my org does many of similar things um florida like philanthropy um and game nights again are just ways for a community to get together um i know our community or my chapter does like will at night a lot
And as well as focusing on our philanthropy we often do um campus-wide testing so we have for our philanthropy of hiv and aids awareness so we host several days out of the year to offer free testing as well as to give sort of little helpful bags health bags for people
And i think again we’re just very dedicated to getting back to the community so a lot of our events do focus on community things or being a part of a community inviting a lot of people to our events awesome thanks so much and um from my understanding when events are open to
Non-members you all post those on your social media and it’s very clear that they’re invited so if you’re interested in a chapter be sure to follow that chapter social media to look out for events where you can meet members and build those connections like trenton was talking about earlier
Awesome thanks for sharing uh and then can you both of you or whoever wants to go explain how mgc and nphc organizations are different than other culturally based groups on campus like black student union or mecha you can go first stephanie yeah um again it’s it’s a sisterhood or a brotherhood
It’s something just kind of the next step like towards you know just this lifelong bond yes we do maybe similar things like giving back to the community and working together as groups but it is to me like that really strong connection of sisterhood that kind of
Takes it beyond that where i know that the people who i’m surrounded with are going to take care of me and support me um and accept me for who i am um regardless of where i came from or what i’m doing even if maybe i’m struggling that
They’ll always kind of be there for me i’m trying to know if you want to continue with that as well yeah um i think we both had experience within you know our greek organizations and we’re also very involved in other organizations and clubs on campus that kelsey’s talking about so we
We exist in both those worlds seamlessly um and being greek is just different there’s a different level of intimacy there’s a different level of commitment but there’s also a different level of exactly what you’re talking about the brotherhood is sisterhood the the meaningfulness of what you get and sort of what you represent
And a larger um network that you’re a part of in a vastly different way than like a student union of some sort or a club that’s you know focused on your um major or something like that it’s just it’s just you exist in a different space and you represent something
That’s a bit larger and a bit more meaningful it holds a lot of history um and so it’s just a different um this is a different vibe i don’t know a better way to put it than that um it just it means something different
Than you know being a part of a bsu or being a part of you know something something some similar club it’s not a club at all awesome thank you for those responses those are great um and to wrap us up for tonight um i got a fun question here from the audience of
What is just tell us one favorite memory from being a part of your chapter i know it’s a good one it’s hard to pick right so whoever can think of one first go right ahead i can think of one um i remember after um when i joined after i crossed um i had
We have what’s called a probate and that’s a way of sort of presenting new members to um to the general populace to the world basically um and so i it was a it was a great time there’s a lot of people out there um we just had a good time i had people
Members of our organization uh that came down from like portland to show up and support and we just all went we had a good time um during the probate and afterwards you know it was it’s a celebration so we were celebrating um that whole night just enjoying um enjoying just
The growth of our brotherhood um and you know this is typical nphc and i’m sure mgc fashion literally that was on a friday literally the next day that saturday we had to be up in portland for uh march for the babies which is an annual like uh volunteer fundraising march that
March of dimes does so we had a good time stayed up all night party and then we had to get up at six o’clock in the morning the next morning and i had to drive all the way from corvallis to portland um and we did the walk and ate and everything and
Ended up coming back so that was that was i it was a fun memory for me because we’re kind of all in this together and it was really like a a welcome to how this works kind of thing so i it was fun i enjoyed it
Yeah it is really so hard to pick just from all the things that we’ve done like or i’ve done with all of my sisters and with the community um but i think my my favorite experience was nphc had held a showcase for culturally based greeks and that was my first time
Strolling and i just strolling is also something that really like hooked me when i saw it but you know it’s so cool and awesome and i just really love watching other people stroll as well and just present and be proud of their orgs so i think that was probably like my favorite
Moment because i was actually um leaving the line for one of them and it was so nervous like nerve-wracking because it was my first time strolling and it was in like a community where i didn’t really like show off any strolling yet or i just kind of
Learned to myself or learned with my sisters and struggled them just when a song would come on here and there this is my first time just kind of presenting or just performing in front of other people and that was just a terrifying but one of my favorite experiences and memories and then kind
Of just led into the stroll competition that we held last turn last year for greek week where i did more of like the organizing of it and that was also stressful but when it came to me performing in it um the stress kind of went away and i had a really great
Time uh for me i think strolling is uh and just watching other people and just being in a room full of people who are just strolling or um doing their own thing and having a great time is is kind of an energy that’s unmatchable or like uncomparable to other things
I’ve experienced in any other community oh go ahead and i was gonna say i’m just like reveling in your memories here they’re great yeah super fun i love it um i remember we had um like a regional conference so um regions typically made up several states
And so all of the members of one organization from these specific regions will come together for a conference where they meet and you know handle business and do different things and we had a regional conference in arizona in tucson and i had never been to arizona before
Um that that whole area of the united states i hadn’t really been a part of it so we went down there and just being with brothers from arizona but from across our region from california washington um nevada colorado all different places and we all just got to kind of hang out
Um enjoy each other’s company have a good time we handled the bids that we had to handle but just being able to be in their presence and build new relationships and you know going back to where we’re going back saying oh i can’t wait to go to this place because i’ll have somewhere
Somebody to see and oh we’re having this on so and so day y’all should make that drive to come down there and all these different kind of things it was just um i’ve done that a couple times now and that’s just always really exciting is to be able to go places
And meet people that maybe you might have never heard of or maybe you’ve seen them on like instagram or something like that it’s just really fun i enjoyed a lot awesome thank you both so much for sharing that wraps up our questions from participants for the session so i’m
Going to turn it back over to you all to wrap us up hey thank you so much kelsey and thank you all for your questions um we’re so glad that we could answer some and if you have any more um feel free to come by virtual office hours via zoom and there’s more
Information that can be found again on our website um to access that those zoom hours kind of see more information if you’re interested in researching more um and so i’ll just pause for a moment and put up some of the information um so please feel free to reach out to
Us for any questions about recruitment or the cultural group experience and stay updated on our communities by following our instagram accounts so um uh nphcs would be osu and oh i’m sorry at osu nphc and for mdc it’s at oregon state mgc and we mostly post a lot i know a
Lot of information kind of goes through there so if you really want to keep up that’s probably the best way to get a hold or just kind of ask questions as well as to follow our other chapters or our chapters within our councils they’re all tagged there as well and
Again i really appreciate y’all for coming i had a great time and i hope you have a great rest of your evening so go bees go greek
source
