VALDOSTA – Valdosta State University unveiled the National Pan-Hellenic Council Plaza with a ceremony that honored each “Divine 9” organization.

This will be a space where both times of memory and times of joy will happen, VSU President Dr. Richard Carvajal said.

Plans to construct the plaza were announced in July with the bulk of construction occurring between September and November.

Fundraising efforts for the project were led by the VSU Foundation. NPHC undergraduate and alumni members exceeded their fundraising goal in brick purchases.

Alumni, undergraduates and affiliates of NPHC and Valdosta State University can purchase a brick paver that will be permanently placed inside of the plaza.

Though highly anticipated after its announcement, the NPHC Plaza is a culmination of more than 50 years of hard work yielded from NPHC students and alumni.

Carvajal said the plaza was something a few years in the making between VSU and a group of “Divine 9” alumni. They aimed to answer two questions: How do we all better engage with one another? Where could this space be presented?

The NPHC Plaza is the obvious answer to the first question.

The second answer might not be obvious to onlookers, but it was definitely obvious to the planners: It had to be somewhere with historical significance.

And so, the NPHC Plaza was placed along the Azalea Trail near the VSU Fine Arts Building, adjacent to the old basketball courts which are a historic spot for NPHC.

Kevin B. Walker, one of the original members of the Lambda Phi chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity at then Valdosta State College, remembers playing on those courts during his 1974-78 school tenure.

He remembers coming to the courts during his freshman year at VSU in 1974, meeting with more than 100 Black men and women to play basketball or just hang out.

He’s still friends with some of them to this day. It’s a feeling of camaraderie he hopes the plaza will now inspire in future generations.

“It will draw the (NPHC) organizations, tying us together,” Walker said. “Then the members within the organization will be inspired to contribute and leave their mark.”

Walker recognized there was resistance toward the NPHC Plaza in the project’s infancy and said he was glad to see it pull through.

With the plaza almost fully constructed — VSU is waiting to place some benches in the area — he said VSU’s NPHC organizations are now immortalized which shows tremendous growth from how things used to be.

“Our school was smaller then — probably only 3,500 students, 4,000 maybe my senior year (in 1978),” Walker said. “The African American population was very small, maybe 5-10%. Now we’re close to 40% I understand.”

Terrel Matchett said the plaza is a refreshing sight but she wishes it was something that could have happened during her time at Valdosta State.

Though she crossed the Kappa Upsilon Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority in spring 1994, she sees having an NPHC Plaza as a natural point of curiosity.

She said it will encourage students to ask about the history of NPHC organizations and more specifically their history on the VSU campus.

VSU now has a place marking the Greek presence, Matchett said, adding when traveling to other college campuses, typically historically Black college campuses, a Greek plot is clearly visible.

“We’ve contributed a lot to the campus, so we definitely deserve to be honored and represented,” Matchett said. “I’m just happy this finally happened. I can’t wait to see the final product.”