Campus Talk

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO WELCOMES ITS FIRST OFFICIALLY REGISTERED BLACK FRATERNITY, OMEGA PSI PHI

1 year ago Sonya Mallard

WASHINGTON, DC-JULY 30, 2011 Several impromptu step shows frequented the thousands of Omega Psi Phi fraternity brothers crowded onto the Howard University campus in Washington, D.C.on July 30, 2011. Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc celebrates their centennial in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Cedric ‘BIG CED’ Thornton

NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders has decided to apply his coaching skills to the University of Colorado Boulder football team for this upcoming season. But another change took place before Sanders went to Colorado: A Black fraternity made its way back to the campus as well.

According to CBS Colorado, a former football player and current coach on Sanders’ staff successfully brought the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, which had a presence on campus in the 1990s, back to the university in November 2022.

Former Buffaloes center Joshua Jynes, who played for the school from 2018 to 2021, had a hand in making the historically Black fraternity return and officially register at CU Boulder.

“I didn’t look into it because I assumed every college had, you know, fraternities. So, Black fraternities and sororities,” Jynes said. “When I got on campus, I was looking for it, and they was like, they didn’t have it.”

It was family tradition that led Jynes to join the frat, since his father and uncle were also members. A phone call from his uncle to De’Ron Jasper, the assistant athletic director and assistant services and operations at CU, got the ball rolling.

“He was like, ‘Oh, I wanted to be an Omega,’ but he didn’t know at the time that Omegas were even around,” Jasper said. “And I had the opportunity to already kind of gauge him, and I was like, I can see him fitting in. How he could help.”

With the help of another frat brother, TJ Labree, the three men secured provisional status on campus through fraternity and sorority life. It took a year to make it happen and was finalized in November 2022.

“I think it’s important to just have that representation so that they can say, ‘Hey, I have the opportunity. I see it’s there, and if I want to strive to be in that, then I have the opportunity to do that,’” Jasper said.

The football coach hopes to see more Omega men living on campus and sporting its purple and gold colors.