No one said her question was illegitimate.

I think that all the NPHC orgs are very visible within their constituency, which is the Black community. For example, when I was growing up, I was exposed to the NPHC orgs because they were always holding events (food drives, fundraisers, Buckle Up America, health fairs, scholarships, etc.). I had teachers in NPHC orgs that wore paraphenaila (pins, etc.) or had nicknacks on their desks. Even though neither of my parents are Greek, I knew a ton about NPHC orgs because of how active they were in my community.

On my college campus, NPHC and NALFO groups wore letters more frequently than NPC or IFC groups. It wasn't until my junior year that I even heard of rush or what the NPC was. NPHC orgs always had fliers, especially to advertise for their "week" of events. I did notice that most of those events were advertised only to the minority students, so that may be why you hadn't seen any fliers. On my current campus (I'm in grad school) the NPHC has designated one day a week as "letters day", and everyone wears a jacket/sweatshirt/pin with their letters on it, to increase exposure.

ETA: In Atlanta, NPHC orgs are very visible. EVERYONE has a car tag or wears letters, even the older members.

In my opinion, lack of a "national personality" as I interpret it is this thread means that each group is simply too diverse to stereotype.

Sounds like a good thing to me.

I think the problem here is that OPhiARen is very familiar with NPHC groups and is in a position to make automatic connections between activities and NPHC membership. While I'm not sure you could stop ANY member walking down the street, you'd notice signs such as colors, symbols, or (clearly) letters. Even being involved in specific service.

However, you're very unfamiliar with NPC groups, so you wouldn't necessarily be aware that the woman with a lavender and maroon tote decorated with hearts is likely to be a Sigma Kappa. Or that the college girls volunteering at a Ronald McDonald house have a better than average chance of being ADPis.

My campus has sororities that serve: Girl Scouts, gerontology/Alzheimers, Ronald McD House, Campfire USA (at risk girls), and helping the blind.
I bet that most of the NPC women on here can identify which sorority is which simply from one single example of each sorority's philanthropy.

I'm very unfamiliar with NPHC groups. My campus does not recognize them. Saint Louis has city wide chapters that do have events on SLU's campus as well as at Harris Stowe, WashU, etc. The only thing I know about Sigma Gamma Rho is that their mascot is the poodle and they have a sort of pageant/fashion show thing once a year. I see signs. But without letters, i wouldn't know one from an Alpha Kappa Alpha. I have no idea what

This is simply a difference in what you are surrounded by and what you choose to surround yourself with. It's not an issue of NPHC having identities and NPC not. It's an issue of awareness of those identities.

Phew, sorry so long, hope it all makes sense:)

Edit: Also NPC doesn't really "market" or promote itself to high school students. At least we're not supposed to. It's a difference in recruitment procedures.

By saying that "you could stop on on the street" I was referring to those with letters on. I thought it was implied.


Sorry for the misunderstanding,


M

Well, I could go "Hey you're in XYZ right? I saw your letters!" But my point still stands, that it's an issue of familiarity, not lack of national reputation

possibly, Great point


I have had people come up to me generally to tell me about projects we have done. The experiences of others may be different.

To my knowledge (and I am not an NPHCer so I could be wrong so feel free to correct me) but they don't "market" to high school students either". They DO have auxiliary groups that serve the needs of teens in their respective communities, i.e. tutoring, mentoring, etc., as well as other philanthropies and community services. They have a HIGH level of visibility in their communities due to their HIGH level of active involvment in/with their organizations and communities.

edit (because I hit the submit button too soon): Thus a large portion of the community outside of greeks or those that know greeks, both younger and older, tend to know more about the organizations even though they may have never stepped foot on a college campus.

You are correct.

What I think is odd is that I do probably know more about NPHC groups than NPC groups, and before I came to college I didn't know that NPHC groups existed (I am from one of the whitest placest ever). Maybe because I didn't go to rush, I don't know. But it seems so much more a part of general culture to know about NPHC, even if you aren't in the orgs, that I absorbed a lot of that info, whereas with the NPCs, even hanging around with NPC people, there is still a lot that I don't know. Trying to learn more, though - it's really interesting.

That's why I put "market" in quotes. Several people had said they were aware of NPHC groups because of activities in high school and such. NPC groups may work with kids as part of their philanthropy, but it the focus is in a different area. I don't think that NPC groups would be allowed to have auxilary groups focused on high school students. Not outside of philanthropy I mean. I think a lot of it comes to the way we each look for new members. The structure of NPC pretty much prohibits that sort of in depth interaction with high schoolers, unless everyone did it. NPHC recruiting (at least as it seems to me) is focused on only one group instead of all of them.

I hope I make sense... I don't mean that any of the D9 are out there flaunting it to high school students, just that by their nature they have the ability to work more with them... or something.... yeah. :cool:

And I suspect that this is the difference between being black and being white at a college campus. Like I said, I'm not aware of it, because I don't have a single friend in one of the NPHC groups. I suspect the fact that they are forced to be mostly off campus is the major reason for this. If they were on campus I'd see more than the occasional flier.

This may come down to the self-segregating tendancy that everyone has. This is an issue that goes beyond Greek Life and everything but may explain why non-black students are more in the dark about NPHC and why, especially on campuses where NPC is seen as "white-only" (I know it's not, but we all know the perception exists and is perpetuated by people on both sides), non-white people are more in the dark about NPHC and MCGLOs.

The fact that NPHC orgs aren't recognized by a lot of campuses may have something to do with it.

Define "a lot of campuses" please.

This is just my opinion and also a perspective of someone who “grew up in both worlds”…this is going to be long so bear with me please…..

My Background – brief

Now I will be honest with you, when I first went into sorority rush, I was a tiny bit informed, but looking back, I was completely clueless. I thought all sororities held recruitment at the same time, not from the same pool perhaps but at the same time…meaning both NPC & NPHC…now a little background to get a better feel from where I am coming from…

I didn’t learn about black colleges and black greek like until I was very “old”, perhaps 14/15. One of my fathers friends came to the house, see I knew back then that I wanted to be in a sorority, I just didn’t know which one, I really didn’t know all that much about NPC, NIC, NPHC and I will be honest most of my information came from the TV/Movies. I would hope that most of the ladies in my age group (30s) who did not grow up around greeklife can understand where I am coming…Anyway, like I said, I told this lady that I wanted to be in a sorority, a whole new world opened up for me when I learned that there were black sororities….she then proceeded to tell me about AKA, DST, ZPhiB and SGRho, now to be honest with you, I think she only mentioned (or at least I can only remember) her speaking only about AKA and DST…she told me right away that I am DST material (even though I won’t repeat it, she was going of the stereotypes that existed at the time) she told me that there was no way in hell that AKA would consider me. I can’t say I had a reaction to this; it was just a piece of information to me, not good/not bad. Now all through this I think I knew that my uncle was in a fraternity, but didn’t become conscious of it until I got older and began to understand that that really meant, also driving by the house every so often “solidified” the knowledge. My uncle, cousin and step-father are KAPsi…they have not stayed active, but are very proud Kappa’s nonetheless.

When I got to ASU I went through rush, blah, blah, blah….During my first weeks during school I still saw nothing of the NPHC Greek, I gradually saw shirts for AKA and APhiA, but by then I was very happy where I was.

So back to the original question of perspective: The segment of community that I grew up in…Black Greeks were not prevalent, that is not to say that they were not there…because that would just be silly…just not as noticeable that it may seem, it just depends on the segment of the community you are speaking about and how involved with the organization and community service projects of that segment. (I hope that makes sense). I can name off colors and mascots, and maybe 1 or 2 service projects that the NPHC are involved with on the national level, this is because I am not involved in NPHC world.

Now I can rattle off colors, mascots and philanthropies of most all NPCs without breaking a sweat.

So it really just depends on the segment of the community and how involved you are in that community, so that you can have some type of “national” awareness of a particular conference or organization.

No one org is better than the other…no one conference/council is better than the other….neither has more or less national presence than the other….it all depends on the environment that grew up in and the path that you choose when you make the decision to become involved in a greek letter organization.

I will admit that in the NPHC world it does appear to be "all for one & one for all"...but I also think that is because there are 9 groups in that council...whereas 26 groups in the NPC and 60ish groups in the NIC