Category | Arts & Living

New African-American fraternity debuts

Published on October 26, 2009 by Anastasia Bartolucci

The brothers of Tau Zeta, the newest Greek organization at KSU, descended the staircase of the student center Oct. 25 for their Chartering Ceremony. 

All Alpha Phi Alpha and Tau Zeta brothers, locked arms to sing the Fraternity Hymn at the close of Sunday’s Chartering Ceremony.

Tau Zeta is not your average fraternity chapter-they are now initiated as KSU’s first African-American band of brothers.

Tau Zeta is the offspring of the national fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, which has done more than render the voice for the African-American community since 1906-it has the distinction of being the first of all African-American Greek letter organizations.  The fraternity has privilege of calling Martin Luther King Jr. and W.E.B. Dubois brothers, as Alpha Phi Alpha has followed in these remarkable men’s footsteps as they inspire progress for their communities.

Referring to themselves as “Kings of the highest caliber, honor, and courage,” the fraternity is focused on developing young men by maximizing their greatest potential-an important focus as there is still a devastating rate of young African-American drop-outs and prisoners.

Brother Justin Hills, the welcoming speaker at the ceremony, said he “witnessed a need for an Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at KSU,” and with the help of his brothers, Chapter President Stephan Black, organization officials, and many pulled strings, Hills witnessed this vision come to life.  However, the road taken for the Tau Zeta emergence at KSU was nothing less than tumultuous.

Some would consider Alpha Phi Alpha’s Atlantian roots to have started on the SPSU campus, but reality is that the Tau Zeta chapter began here at KSU.  When members of the chapter expressed their desire to relocate to the SPSU grounds, it took numerous fundraisers and long hours of bake sales, voter registration drives and community service events to facilitate its transition.

As of Oct. 22, the chapter is back at its KSU origins, eager to shed a new light within the university and commence on their new beginning.

Aside from all the accomplishments, these brothers know how to have fun too.  If their first motto is to be a beacon of light, then their second (as expressed by Hills at the ceremony) is “party hard, party late, but we graduate”-and that they do.

Tau Zeta has already been accredited with noteworthy undertakings, graduating three seniors on time-including Gray Akoegbe, the youngest person to ever graduate from KSU-and teaming with the NAACP to build foundations that provide scholarships to outstanding students and shelter to underprivileged families.

Brother Herman “Skip” Mason, the 33rd President of Alpha Phi Alpha, spoke at Sunday’s ceremony, marking not only a momentous occasion for the chapter’s initiation, but a significant juncture for Mason as well.  As Mason commenced the chapter’s initiation, he tells Tau Zeta members-seated before him and intently listening to his optimistic expectations for the chapter’s future-of their “task” to “keep the fire burning” toward building on “what is good and right and to correct what is wrong.”

He continued to explain that the new chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha and KSU not only represent the more than 200,000 brothers nationwide, but the goodwill of all mankind. His first chartering ceremony as president of the fraternity, Mason referred to the Tau Zeta men as the pearls of Alpha Phi Alpha. Mason employed this metaphor, describing the members of Tau Zeta as “very fine, very rare, very valuable,” much like the actual gemstone.

“It is a wonderful day in KSU history to welcome this chapter-we now have all the historic black fraternities and sororities on campus,” said President Daniel Papp.  A milestone for KSU, the university prides itself on being a diverse campus for race, gender and age, and that should transcend to its diversity of Greek organizations as well.

The chartering ceremony hosted many speakers from around the state and nation who bestowed their approval and support on the young members of Tau Zeta.  Of all the hopes and encouragements expressed during the ceremony, the poem read aloud by Brother Darius Robinson articulated the Fraternity’s mission best as he read, “I am the college of friendship; the University of brotherly love; the school for the better making of men” and concluded by associating these virtues with, “I am Alpha Phi Alpha.”  KSU should not only be proud to adopt this new Chapter, but should be more enthusiastic over the integration of such grand virtues to the university.