Speaker comes to discuss misconceptions of Black Greek organizations.

The Southeast Missouri State University Department of Greek Life welcomed speaker Rasheed Ali Cromwell, Esq., on Feb. 28 to speak to more than 100 people to discuss the miseducation of black Greek letter organizations.

Cromwell, a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., has spoken at campuses around the United States and has studied the ins and outs of the National Pan Hellenic Council for the past 10 years.

Director of Greek Life and member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., DeAnte' Smith said that he first had contact with Cromwell during a Greek retreat while he was an undergraduate student at Southern Mississippi University and felt it was imperative to get him to Southeast.

"He is one of the top people in the minority NPHC black Greek letter organization circuit," Smith said. "His sessions are very good. He crafts them for the university, so he doesn't have a standard presentation where it's going to be the same 'If you hear him this time, you've heard him everywhere.' He calls a week in advance to ask what are issues going on at your campus so that he has slides prepared, he crafts it to fit your needs."

During the speech Cromwell gave the attendees history and common practices of the NPHC and the purposes behind why it was founded. At one point in the speech he asked one member of every Greek letter organization to line up in what he referred to as a "pledge line."

Cromwell instructed members to line up in shortest to tallest form and demonstrated 'locking up' with arms intertwined while educating the attendees on why Greek letter organizations do this. He referenced this type of activity to slave ships being brought to the U.S. during slavery and families not wanting to be separated.

While Cromwell touched on the history of NPHC, he also discussed the problems within the council as well. He dug deep into the reality of how the NPHC has changed over time when it comes to membership.

Common practices of the NPHC, contrary to IFC and PanHellenic, do not include actively recruiting members. He discussed how many top African American leaders aren't a part of the council, including President Barack Obama and United States Senator Cory Booker, and how the selection process is becoming more of a popularity contest rather than recruiting leaders.

"In my experience one of the things that I think that hinders black Greek letter organizations is that it has become a culture to where we consider if you want to be a part of our organization, you seek us out," Smith said. "I do agree with him that we fall short sometimes from the aspect of 'We don't recruit' and sometimes we don't get the best leaders, including President Barack Obama."

Though the speech brought to life a lot of issues pertaining to the NPHC, it gave non-Greeks an opportunity to ask questions that they may have trouble asking an NPHC Greek on campus.

Krista Clark, vice president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., said that she thought it was great that non-Greeks got a better insight to the NPHC and why the organizations stress the importance of their purpose.

"I think it opened their eyes [non-Greeks] to what we do as NPHC and the different organizations," Clark said. "It's about getting people in our organizations that are leaders and that want to work for the chapter, and it showed them what we're looking for so they won't go in blind, for those that are interested."

NPHC is made up of nine Greek letter organizations including Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, Delta Sigma Theta, Phi Beta Sigma, Zeta Phi Beta, Sigma Gamma Rho, and Iota Phi Theta. Only seven of those organizations have a representative chapter on Southeast's campus.