Member organizations of the Black Fraternal Council unanimously voted last night to join the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Inc., the umbrella organization for the nine historically black Greek letter fraternities and sororities.
"Because of the increased accountability that we have to go through with the NPHC, it will create more of a stable structure," BFC co-Chair Brandon Green said. "The hope is that it will bring us together socially, on a more personal level, as well as with the University. Hopefully it will make us more visible in the University community as well as the Charlottesville community."
David Bynes, assistant dean of Fraternity and Sorority Life, said joining the NPHC will increase support and resources for the BFC member organizations.
"It gives them more of a support structure regionally and at a national level being that the NPHC is a national organization," Bynes said. "It also helps align them with other councils at universities across the country."
Green proposed the BFC transition to the NPHC at the beginning of the year after doing background research on the NPHC and speaking with Bynes.
"It seemed strange to me that we didn't have it in the first place," Green said. "It's everywhere else."
The BFC has been in touch with representatives from the NPHC since the beginning of the year, researching and discussing a change. The possibility of a move came to the forefront after one member organization, Alpha Phi Alpha, Inc., decided to leave the BFC to join the University's Inter-Fraternal Council in February, Green said.
"The Alphas moving is not the reason for us becoming a NPHC," he said. "The reason for us moving is our own choice. It has been something that has been brought up on a consistent basis since that move, but it is not the whole reason for the move."
BFC member organizations supported the move because of the increase in resources and support, Green said.
"The biggest influence for most chapters is the national support and the overall resources," he said. "Before, we formed our own council to address those issues, but now we have people who we can contact who have similar situations to us in majority white institutions."
Elections for a new University Pan-Hellenic Council are slated for April 3. BFC member organizations now will begin compiling a set of bylaws which will be sent to a regional NPHC director upon completion. Once those bylaws are approved, the member organizations will be inducted into the NPHC in a chartering ceremony.
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