All seven African-American greek organizations at Ohio State are on “social moratorium” until February because of violence at a fraternity party in November.

The National Pan-Hellenic Council at OSU – the umbrella governing system of four fraternities and three sororities – imposed the suspension of social activities during Fall Quarter.

The moratorium was a culmination of multiple incidents of violence within the NPHC community, said Christopher Ivory, senior in strategic communications and vice president of NPHC.

A violent incident occurred at a party after the OSU-Michigan game.

“Firearms were involved,” said Stefan Thomas, a junior in criminology and president and social chair of Phi Beta Sigma. “Police aren’t sure whether gunfire came from the altercation or from residents in the Short North.”

No members have spoken out against the moratorium, according to the NPHC.

“Agree or disagree, everyone has supported and abided by the moratorium,” Ivory said.

The other eight members of the NPHC declined to comment.

Two of these members refused to speak with The Lantern because they had been advised not to by the NPHC.

The members of the NPHC who did comment said the biggest consequence of the moratorium is not being able to connect with the larger OSU Greek community. Most Greek events that take place, whether for charity or for fun, are social events.

Some members of the NPHC said that the moratorium is hurting their fund raising.

“I think people are frustrated by losing money from these events,” said Ma’Quia Simmons, secretary of NPHC. When asked how much money they have lost, though, she said, “we haven’t lost any money.”

Ivory also said that there are no monetary consequences from the moratorium. “It doesn’t hurt us; money is irrelevant to the issue at hand,” he said.

While members of both the NHA and IFC have off-campus, university regulated houses to hold charity or social events, NPHC members do not. “Without a student union to hold a lot of events, those events have been moved off-campus where people who are not a part of the OSU community would come, and they would usually be the trouble makers,” Ivory said.

Andrew Vitullo, a junior in finance and president of Tau Kappa Epsilon, said he is surprised that all of the members of the NPHC are being restricted from social events.

“There is really no IFC monitoring of non-registered social events. The IFC has a lot of rules; some are followed, some are not,” he said.

If an altercation arose at his fraternity house, he would deal with it. He said a social suspension would be completely unfair. “If that [social moratorium] were to happen in the IFC, fraternities wouldn’t stand for it,” he said.

Several members of the NPHC have expressed their frustration. Foday Kenneh, a senior in resource management and president of Omega Psi Phi, has mixed feelings about how much control the NPHC should have over his organization.

“This moratorium is an excuse to slow our role on social activities. I don’t think this would ever happen to the IFC, MCGC or PHA. There have been incidents of stealing between the IFC and PHA and they didn’t go on social moratorium,” Thomas said. This newly added consequence could have serious effects on the relationships among Greek organizations.

“Last year, we used to do events with the IFC. We even received the ‘Best Collaboration’ from the Greek council at OSU,” Thomas said. Thomas said more events with the IFC will foster diversity awareness. “I feel that we are so segregated from other Greeks,” he said.

Kenneh agrees that the NPHC and the IFC should participate in more activities together, but is stifled by lack of communication.

“The IFC and NPHC do a terrible job of marketing to each other. We should make a certain amount of social events mandatory, to better connect the community,” he said.

The NPHC feels very different about the interconnectedness of Greek organizations though social events. Ivory said greek should focus more on their grades and less on social events. “All Greeks should cut back on parties,” he said.

Though these changes may anger NPHC members, Kenneh would never join a different fraternity.

“I would never join another organization. I love my fraternity.”

Melissa Eisenberg can be reached at [email protected].