It may have been just a matter of time. As historically Black colleges and universities promote diversity by recruiting students from various racial and cultural backgrounds, at some point these students would want to establish their own social organizations.
At Johnson C. Smith University, an HBCU in Charlotte, N.C., six Latino students decided the time was right to organize a fraternity. So they began a chapter of Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, which was recently accepted by the university, making JCSU the first HBCU to admit a nationally recognized Latino fraternity to its campus.
The young men, who are all pursuing degrees in science, engineering and math disciplines, say their common academic pursuits led them to bond and eventually to discuss the idea of creating a fraternity.
But they had other reasons as well. “One day on a bus ride we were saying how we wanted to make an impact on the community,” recalls Luis Dominguez, who is going into his senior year as a biology-chemistry major. “We also wanted to celebrate our heritage and promote Latino culture at the university.”
Cathy Jones, Johnson C. Smith’s dean of student success, says the university welcomed the new fraternity into its family of student organizations. “It really aligns with the university’s vision and mission to create cultural diversity at JCSU,” Jones says. The students are all originally from Latin countries. “As our international population continues to grow, we are integrating our international students into the mainstream, and this is one way to do that,” Jones adds.
The founding members are Dominguez, Omar Cossio, Yerrison Cardenas, Francisco Cerrillo, Sergio Montesdeoca and Juan Carlos Hernandez Campillo. Lambda Theta Phi is a national organization, recognized by the North-American Inter-Fraternity Conference and the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations. It has undergraduate chapters on 126 other campuses, including four in North Carolina.
None of the other campuses is an HBCU, however, so its acceptance by Johnson C. Smith signals the changes that are occurring as many HBCUs expand their recruiting to diverse populations, including international students. JCSU’s fall 2013 enrollment was 1,331 students with 6 percent classified as international.
