This upsets me. The administration made no attempt to understand NPHC organizations.

@GP Yes, our organizations do not discriminate. However, we tend to appeal to African-Americans moreso than other groups. It's a matter of why and where we were founded.

Ok, let's see if this helps. Let's say that at Broadway College there was ABC chapter, an undergrad chapter, of XYZ Sorority. If Broadyway College pulls the recoginition then ABC chapter can not initiate new members. With Zeta it could be possible for undergraduate women to become members but they would be associate members of a GRADUATE chapter. This does not always happen though. Most of the time they just have to wait until after they graduate to become members.

Okay, that does help - because I know some people here are members of a citywide chapter rather than one at the school. Thank you! :D

City-wide is a whole different ball game. I've never been in a city-wide chapter so my knowledge is limited. Most city-wide chapters don't have enough participation on any single campus to hold a charter individually. Or groups of schools won't allow GLOs on campus. If the charter references specific schools and one of those schools pulls recognition then the members can't hold events on campus.

Hey I just finished reading the article and I have a few things to say I’m going to try to stay factual but I don’t think it will work.

#1 reason Bernie Harrigan is a moron.

At Pitt, fraternities and sororities receive their recognition from their governing body (IFC, Panhel, and NPHC) not from the university; they are in fact the only true “umbrella organizations” at Pitt. The university allows the governance groups to make the calls as to who is recognized. It is the governance group that decides on standards. This is why individual chapters can not request funds. They are not recognized through student life, but through IFC/PH/NPHC. The university can only take recognition away from a chapter when they break the student code of conduct. By mandating a set number of members the NPHC chapters must have, the administration is in effect taking decision making away from students and governance groups—it’s their favorite past time.

#2 Reason why Bernie Harrigan is a moron

This is the second time in a year and a half that she has tried to make a sweeping change to Greek Life at Pitt while we have not had an advisor. The first time was a few weeks after Sharon left; it was called the Greek review and was again done under the banner of helping chapters to shine through. I believe two fraternities were put on suspension directly after the review, and the reasons were never made public. No fraternity, sorority or governing council was aloud to see the review. The entire review was completed by Harrigan (who has no sense of Greek Life) and the ex chief of police who knew nothing about the inner workings of fraternities and sororities. Students are smart enough to realize that she is trying to pull something that shouldn’t happen.

#3 reason why Bernie is a moron

She doesn’t do research into how things work. I had a few friends who were rushing different NPHC chapters and I know how involved and hard it is on both sides of the decision. It takes a lot to be chosen $, time, experience, ect. It is a very involved process. For as active as our Black Action Society (BAS) is the numbers of involved NPHC students is low. Why? Some say its money, some say it’s the selective nature of the groups, others say its because of the atmosphere at Pitt. What ever the reason simply telling a group of people to change over night will not happen. More so telling a national student organization, like NPHC groups, that what they are doing is not working even though they are thriving everywhere else is a dumb move. Obviously it’s not their policies that are at fault.

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Now some clarifications about Pitt.

NPHC will most likely not lose its governance status. They have about 50 members from all the groups put together. That puts them well above the 10 members needed.

As for funding; they receive the second lowest amount of funding any governance group receives, mostly due to their size. They can put on programs for 50 people at a fraction of the cost it takes IFC/Panhel. The amount they recieve is larger than most student groups.

Of course everyone wants them to grow and succeed but that has to be a choice of the chapter or a product of circumstance, not something the administration is forcing down their throats.

The only perks the governance groups get are (If I remember correctly):

1. No funding cap for programs. (Usually $2,000)

2. They can request money to send more than one delegate to a convention (usually it’s caped at cost for one delegate or $600) the convention must be related to the group as a whole NPHC convention in this case.

3. They receive a liaison to the Student Government Board. It is one of the eight board members.

4. The usually claim to represent a large number of students from a variety of clubs and they receive information on many of the “big decisions” in student life.

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In closing I think the bigger issue that not only this article but the previous ones touched on is the current administrations lack of knowledge in student affairs. They do not have a background in student life. Our residence life director is the old chief of police. Students at Pitt are losing their voice and their choice in how to run their organizations. Of our student activity fee students are only capable of spending about half of it. The rest is distributed to different people and departments.

For further reading here is an opinion piece on the article. http://www.pittnews.com/vnews/displa.../405fc85527508

My views on the administration are fairly clear through my posts here. I tried to stay as close to the facts as I could stomach, but as you read it didn’t work. I hope that I gave you more information that you had before reading this post. I would just like to say its hard to stay calm and silent when each week the administration is making decisions that affect you while refusing to meet with you.

I am trying to stay optimistic. I try to think that the administration believes they are doing the right thing and simply is not doing their homework. My optimism fades every time Harrigan speaks.

You hit the nail on the head. My undergrad chapter has never had more than 15 on any given line and the chapter inititiates from 5, now 6, different schools. A city-wide chapter includes all schools in a city or metro area that do not have chapters of their own. While each school does not have to recognize the chapter for students to be initiated, many do recognize the chapter and allow the org to become part of the student activities on campus.


In addition, several posts ask about minimums set by the national organizations. There are minimums to establish a chapter and there are minimums to keep a chapter but there are provisions that allow for special dispensation. Of course these minimums vary by org. DSTs minimum is less than the 10 required at Pitt so while a chapter may be in compliance with our National office, they may not be in compliance with Pitt, therefore we could lose our chapter there through no fault of our own.

Sad....I almost went to Pitt, too!

I can't believe this, that's just not right.

This is the weakness in the University's arguement:

The University allocates monies to organizations over ten people. However, if recieving money is a requirement for being an organization, then none of the sororities or fraternities would be organizations, as none recieve money directly from the university. Only IFC and NPC would be. I dont see why the University cant, instead of recognizing each NPHC group, simply recognize them as one governing organization. Truthfully, I dont see what the University hopes to gain in their pursuits...