Strong and silent

It's 2 a.m. on a Saturday night, and as fraternity sections across West Campus are cutting off the music and picking up plastic cups, freshmen make the trek home to East after a night of frivolous debauchery. On a less visible side of campus, though, some black students are gathering at the Central Campus apartments of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity members, and the after-party has just begun. With music playing, some students dance, while others chill on the sofas and mingle with the brothers, who throw their "grips," or secret handshakes, to say hello.

Cyril Broderick, president of the Iota Xi chapter of the Kappas, boasts that his group originated the after-party, a more intimate gathering after larger parties at the Great Hall. Those parties, however, have gone largely unnoticed by a majority of the Duke community--as has the National Panhellenic Council, a group of nine historically black fraternities and sororities, though only seven are officially recognized as active by the University. Most of the organizations were founded in the first quarter of the 20th century at Howard University and arrived here in the 1970s.

During frequent discussions among greek organizations in the Interfraternity Council and the Panhellenic Council about the future of greek life on campus, Duke's NPHC chapters--much smaller than their counterparts at other universities and in Panhel and IFC--have maintained a low profile, historically possessing few ties to the administration or to mostly white greek organizations.

However, with the combination of required housing on West for sophomores and the creation of the Office for Fraternity and Sorority Life--which seeks, among other purposes, to develop a greater sense of community among all greeks at Duke--black greek life is being pulled further into the larger Duke community and has begun to have a higher profile and increased communication with the administration.

When Sheldon Maye, president of the NPHC at Duke, first joined the Alpha Alpha Chi chapter of Phi Beta Sigma two years ago, he found that the administration was mostly absent from the life of his fraternity--there was a nominal adviser, but he played only a small part. "It seemed like a lot of the stuff we did on our own," says Maye, a senior. "There wasn't a system that told you how to do everything.... You just kind of talked to everyone else."

When Maye became one of two representatives to NPHC for Phi Beta Sigma, nothing really changed. "For those two years... advisers were not a big part of Duke," he says. "I would have liked it to be, but that was not the case. At the same time, though, it didn't seem as though there were many burdens. It seemed as though you could do whatever you wanted and the University wouldn't really know."

But with the creation of the OFSL, run by Assistant Dean of Students Todd Adams, Maye says that is changing. Having worked with Adams through the Black Student Alliance, Maye welcomed the office's creation last year; he says Adams has given NPHC with excellent advising. "It didn't register with me that this was going to be some type of surveillance or some type of administrative way to stop us from doing anything," he says.

Although the year got off to a smooth beginning, rumblings soon began between the administration and members of some IFC organizations. "It started off really well. We didn't have much conflict with anybody," Maye says. "Once the year started..."

From Adams' perspective, one factor that keeps NPHC groups out of "trouble" and makes them unique from Panhel and IFC is their sense of community, both within individual chapters and within the NPHC.

"One of the goals [the office has for] our greek students is to think about how we interact with each other, and develop a sense of a greek community, realizing that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves.... What are the values we espouse, how do we hold each other accountable... and how do we demonstrate those values?" Adams says. "It's something that we don't yet see at the IFC and Panhellenic levels, that concept of community."

Community is certainly present, as well as pride. Jessie Pinkrah, president of the Lambda Omega chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, can recite the history of her group's founding from memory and brought her group together to host an educational AIDS forum on World AIDS Day last semester. Each fraternity, from the Alphas to the Sigmas, has its own unique call, to which only brothers, and occasionally their sister organizations, can respond, and its own step dance that members perform in unison.

That sense of community may be easier for the NPHC groups to maintain, members say, because of their small size compared to Panhel and IFC groups. "They've been tighter-knit," Adams says of NPHC chapters. "Some of the smaller groups are easier to manage from a chapter standpoint. They're a little more flexible or mobile, they can shift directions if they need to, to... change with the times.

"It also might be easier to come together over similar morals and values when you're a smaller organization," he continues. "In most groups, there's a celebration of the African-American experience and culture, although you don't have to be African-American to join. It's another thing that binds them together."

Another factor that has historically allowed the NPHC to preserve some distance from the administration and maintain a lower profile is the fact that members typically block together on Central Campus, unlike IFC fraternities with sections on West Campus, Maye explains.

"Stereotypically, but it's usually true, black greeks and white greeks have a different view, because a lot of white greeks live on West Campus and a lot of black greeks live on Central Campus. So a lot of things that they say about cracking down on alcohol, etc., white greeks may see that as a threat, like [banning] kegs on the quad. That's why they're saying the office is trying to crack down on greek life. But for a lot of African-American fraternities and sororities... that doesn't affect us," Maye says. Most national chapters forbid the consumption of alcohol at parties anyway.

Besides individual bathrooms and private kitchens on Central Campus, a large part of living there is tradition. When Maye joined his fraternity and suggested advocating for housing on West, he says his brothers quickly discouraged the idea.

Living off West pulls campus attention away from the NPHC groups, Adams says. "When people say greek life at Duke, often they mean groups that are residentially based," he says. "I don't know that the groups that are nonresidential get the focus that they deserve."

But just as the OFSL is bringing NPHC fraternities closer together with the administration and the IFC, the new residential life policy may perhaps be drawing them slowly closer to West Campus. "With sophomores living on West now, half of our members are on West," Maye says. "They may get used to it and they may stay, and try to convince other members to go for West."

However, Broderick, of the Kappas, says that will not happening anytime soon for his fraternity. "We're definitely not moving towards West Campus at all. As far as sophomores living on West, that forces your new members to live on West and be a part of that community, but that doesn't necessarily bring your chapter's events [there]. It forces your members to live on West for a year, but after[wards]... they probably want to... live somewhere else," he says.

"There are pros and cons about having West Campus group housing," Broderick continues. "The big benefit is definitely funding, which we definitely don't get by living on Central Campus."

In the past, the biggest drawback to applying for group housing has been the requirement that groups live together in Trent Drive Hall for about three years before they can apply for housing on West. Members willing to make the sacrifice to live in Trent for three years most likely could never enjoy living on campus with their fraternity, because they would have graduated. Although that system has deterred them from applying, Broderick says, the Kappas nevertheless check every year for changes to the process.

Currently, Adams says a new working group of students and administrators is examining the process for student groups, both greek and non-greek, to obtain housing on West Campus more easily. He anticipates the process to be refined by the end of the year for interested groups to apply for the 2004-2005 year.

One NPHC fraternity, the Kappa Omicron chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, already has housing on West Campus, where they have lived since 1993. Obi Amachi, president of the Alpha chapter at Duke, said his organization began fighting for that housing shortly after being founded in 1975.

"I think that having housing on campus is definitely an asset, especially in years past because people knew where we were," says Amachi, a senior. "People could just pop in if they were around. It might take a year or two for people to figure out how to get down here to Edens and see where we are."

Living on campus has given the Alphas a slightly different experience, especially the opportunity to interact with students outside the NPHC, which Maye says the Central Campus living arrangement often prevents students from doing. "We see the beauty and the importance of being here to program and do things for other African Americans on campus, but we can't separate ourselves from the rest of the Duke community," Amachi says.

Asked if greek organizations may segregate students at Duke, he pauses. "I don't think any major groups segregate students. I think you make a choice to segregate yourself," he says. "Yes, there are groups that are predominantly black or white, but you don't only hang out with primarily that color. Particularly as members of my fraternity, we have members from such a diverse background, people who came from primarily white private schools are hanging out with friends who are white, Hispanic or what have you.

"We don't tell people that once you're drawn in, you're ours and you're ours only," he continues. "We'll do stuff with groups in IFC, with Delta Sig and all those guys, we'll do things with Panhel."

Along with sharing West Campus, the Alphas also share the concerns of their IFC neighbors. "A lot of greeks are going off campus... and a lot of greeks feel that that's where things are going to go, that having a section is okay, but to a degree that's not going to matter anymore because we're going to be doing a lot of things off campus, which will be hard because there's a lot less support off campus," Amachi says. "It's not like we're a Chapel Hill that has fraternity houses, it's not like we have a really hopping college town in Durham."

Right now, with only 12 members in the organization--a relatively large number for NPHC groups--gathering enough members to move to a house off campus would be difficult. "This is it. We're so small," Amachi says.

He adds, however, that the current trend away from a social life centered around on-campus fraternities may not last forever. "Maybe in 10 years, things will kind of be back the way they were my freshman and sophomore year when there was stuff on campus every weekend, and you could just walk around on West Campus and there was something to do," Amachi hopes.

Still, the question of the future of greek life has definitely crossed the minds of some NPHC members.

Maye thinks the discussion is just a lot of hype. "At least from talking to [IFC president] Jeremy [Morgan] and talking to my own groups, I don't really see that greek life is going to disappear," Maye says. "One of the few concerns I have heard is that they're trying to merge everyone together into one greek group. Some people are scared, like, there won't be IFC or Panhel or NPHC anymore, there'll just be greek world, and I think each group has a distinctive personality. But there's been no talk of that, that's just people's fears."

Maye adds that he thinks the new OFSL should help to preserve greek life. "One thing I've learned on campus is that once change happens, everyone revolts, nobody likes change. But then years down the line, they love it," Maye adds.

Amachi, on the other hand, can relate directly to the concern. "It's weird, because Duke's in transition right now. So I think we're hitting a lull where stuff is in disarray, and hopefully there will be an upswing soon. I definitely see where my friends and my greek peers are coming from though, thinking that the administration is trying to get rid of us or kick us off campus or both. Greeks have been a part of Duke for a while now. To completely strip them away from campus..."

He pauses and shakes his head. "I don't think that would happen. I'd be very surprised if it happened."