The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) at USC, a collection of nine historically African American Greek organizations, have withdrawn from homecoming activities following a conflict with Homecoming Commission organizers.
NPHC alleges that they were mistreated by the Homecoming Commission with regard to the annual Homecoming Step Show, according to a press release issued by the organization. NPHC claims that the event was changed to a “stroll-off” by the Homecoming Commission, then changed again by the commission without NPHC consent and misrepresented on their website before its ultimate cancellation.
“The organizations of which NPHC is comprised were extremely disappointed upon hearing there would be no step show this year, and we are collectively even more frustrated in the cancellation of the stroll-off as well,” Karra McCray, vice president of NPHC to the Sorority Council, said in the press release. “After the Homecoming Commission made revisions to the plans without the consent of NPHC, the organizations involved in NPHC decided to withdraw from the line-up of Homecoming activities.”
Third-year political science student Christopher Heyward felt as if the conflict reflected a lack of respect for NPHC and the event on the part of the Homecoming Commission.
“I feel like it’s putting us at a disadvantage, I feel like we’re put through hurdles,” Heyward said. “Why is the process not smooth for us? Why do we keep having to jump through hoops?”
The Homecoming Commission firmly denies the allegations, claiming that the cancellation was not up to them as they were not the official sponsors of the event and had to do with a scheduling conflict brought about by changes to the homecoming scheduling by flooding.
According to third-year visual communications student Maria Sturmer, this year’s Homecoming Commissioner, the commission was approached by NPHC in April and told them that while they could help find a sponsor, they could not themselves sponsor the event or sign off on a venue.
“Unfortunately, we had reallocated our Commission to work on other events, so we weren’t expecting to be able to help plan the event and we asked them to plan the event and we would be able to promote it for them,” Strumer said. “From there because we weren’t able to sponsor the event we weren’t able to put our name down on the reservation to be able to do those kinds of things because we weren’t planning them as a Homecoming Commission.”
Sturmer was also firm on the fact that the commission harbored no malice towards NPHC.
“I would never want to intentionally exclude anybody or cancel events,” she said. “I worked really hard to be able to change things around this week to be sensitive to our community, so we as a Commission have worked really hard and it’s unfortunate that people didn’t get enough information on the things that had occurred … I feel terrible that they didn’t get the information in time.”
Sturmer also responded to the issue raised by NPHC that the commission described the event as a “cultural dance competition” against the wishes of NPHC.
“As far as the statement that we issued in our press release, I personally took their statement that they gave me and I was trying to make it more of a conversation within the piece and I just added a few descriptive words, and I had no intention of getting anybody offended … I sincerely apologize on my behalf … we were able to change it immediately within a couple hours of it being out and I’ve already apologized to the leaders of NPHC.”
Following the example of NPHC, the Kappa Kappa Gamma and Alpha Chi Omega organizations have also decided to withdraw from homecoming activities.
"Due to the recent cancellations in certain events and the overall direction that the University of South Carolina’s Homecoming Week has gone, the sisters of Kappa Kappa Gamma have respectfully dropped out of Homecoming competition,” a press release issued by Kappa Kappa Gamma stated. “We strongly believe in the four pillars that guide our Greek Community … In dedication to those pillars and standing in solidarity with everyone that is included in the Greek Community, NPC and NPHC organizations alike, we believe it is the best plan of action to withdraw.”
The nine NPHC organizations are Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. and Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc.
Nathaniel Simmons-Thorne contributed to this story.