Diversity is an issue that the campus of UTM has been trying to achieve for many years now. In light of this, the ladies of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. have been trying to do our part in helping to achieve this goal. This year, our organization as well as Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. entered the rope pull competition for the first time. Many negative comments were spoken about out participation in the event. We were even discouraged from participating in the event all together (not just by students). It was further stated, “They have their events, and we have ours… and they need to stick to theirs.” It has always been understood that ALL homecoming events are for everyone, not just certain groups. As a whole, we are all members of the same collegiate Greek community. We are all here to uphold our national programs as well as support one another. It should not come to the members of one organization discouraging another organization simply because they changed the status quo. Life is about change. If we want diversity on campus, we all must be prepared to change.

Luckily, we did receive encouragement from several organizations. We would like to thank them at this time. First, we would like to thank Phi Sigma Kappa for coaching our rope pull team this year. We know they received a lot of flack because of this, but they stood by us anyway. We would also like to thank Sigma Alpha Epsilon for letting us use their house to practice for the stepshow this year. Lastly, we would like to thank the following organizations for their words of encouragement and support: Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., Zeta Tau Alpha, Alpha Delta Pi, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Sigma Phi Epsilon, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. May God bless you for all the good deeds you do.

Danielle Neely is the Zeta Phi Beta Correspondent.