Three new “Omegas” brought a howl back to campus after 24 years with the re-establishment of the first Black Greek lettered fraternity, the Kappa Eta chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc.
The newest “Omegas” are Zachary Edwards, Mathieu Racine and Jahi Bazin.
Since the fall semester, Edwards, Racine and Bazin worked to restore the chapter with Omega Psi Phi Inc.'s brother chapters and alumni, becoming the Resurgent 3 line. Racine is their keeper of records and seals, Bazin is the vice basileus and Edwards is the basileus of the revived chapter.
While Racine and Bazin were suitemates since freshman year and the three members knew of each other, Edwards said bringing the organization back grew their brotherhood.
“It was very important for me to actually be present in the fraternity, trying to do something about it,” Edwards, a junior international relations and Asian studies double major, said. “Being someone who can help bring it back to Seton Hall after so long, I just felt like it was very right for me to do.”
The fraternity worked for years to come back to campus after the last chapter graduated in 2000.
“The administration felt that after the last brothers graduated off campus with the other fraternities, there wouldn’t be interest, but we argued that some students' lives have been changed by Omega Men, whether it be mentors, coaches, or legacy members who have family,” Edwards said in an email. “They deserve the right to pursue this opportunity, as well as we are a vital part of a collegiate campus’ ecosystem.”
Alumni of the fraternity have appeared on campus in previous semesters, including at their Meet the Greeks tabling in fall 2022.
“Our leadership definitely did a lot of teaching,” Bazin, a senior management and marketing double major, said. “They spent a lot of hours with us, they gave us a lot of grace. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to get through this.”
In December 2023, the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. broke down what needed to happen and the amount of money needed to establish the fraternity back on campus.
“That’s the train I want to be on,” Racine, a senior political science major, said. “Those are people I want to be around.”
The Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. chapters at Rutgers New Brunswick, Rutgers Newark, Montclair State University, Kean University, Bloomfield and Fairleigh Dickinson University helped the Kappa Eta chapter re-establish itself on campus and support by attending events, according to Edwards and Bazin.
“We have to uplift each other, especially us as Black men,” Bazin said. “It is always us versus someone else whether we like it or not. It is important for us to have each other’s backs.”
Edwards, Racine and Bazin revealed their return with a probate, which included a step show and educated people about the fraternity’s history on campus, on April 10.
Bazin said brothers from all over New Jersey along with other states came to show their support.
“It was surreal,” Bazin said. “It feels like it wasn’t even real. It is just like, wow, this is the product of everything we have been working on.”
Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. was the first international fraternal organization founded at Howard University, a historically Black university on November 17, 1911.
When the fraternity was established on the South Orange campus on May 7, 1975, the board rejected the fraternity starter. For the chapter to be accepted, the board had to be removed and a new board established, according to Edwards.
“It was a different place and a different time,” Edwards said. “While the past is the past, I still think it should be acknowledged, and it shouldn’t be that we are just coming back for the first time. We were the first, and people should know that.”
Edwards said because the organization was founded as the first Black Greek Fraternity on campus, he and his brothers have a big responsibility to fill.
“I believe that it is something that had to be done and something that had been gone for too long from campus,” Edwards said.
The fraternity upholds the cardinal principles of manhood, scholarship, perseverance and upliftment. Their motto is “friendship is essential to the soul.”
Bazin said he holds onto the fraternity’s motto because the people he surrounds himself with make life worth living.
The Kappa Eta chapter’s probate was highlighted on the news and media website’s Instagram, Watch The Yard, which focuses on Black college culture and Black fraternity and sorority life.
Omega Psi Phi is a part of the National Pan Hellenic Council along with Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc., Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc.
“All the people I have met already have so much love,” Racine said. “Every time I have met somebody, it has been pure friendship. They just want to see you succeed, and it makes you want to succeed yourself.”
The novelist and figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes, the MLB 1995 American League MVP with the Boston Red Sox, Maurice “Mo” Vaughn, TV comedian, Steve Harvey, and Charles R. Drew who perfected the use of blood plasma and received the NAACP Spingarn Award in 1944 are a few of the alumni of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity Inc.
More information about the Kaptivating Kappa Eta chapter can be found on their Instagram @kappaetaques.
Calla Patino writes for the Campus Life section. She can be reached at calla.patino@student.shu.edu
