Six Greek organizations strolled, stepped and shimmied through McAfee Gym as students sang and danced with them in the stands Friday.

Since it was going to rain, students initially met on the Doudna Steps for the show, but Greek members asked the students to move to McAfee.

The step show had six of the nine organizations from the National Pan-Hellenic Council. The NPHC is a council of predominantly African-American Greek organizations.

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority performed their routines to introduce themselves to the university as well as freshmen and other new students.

After the show, students stayed in the stands and cheered as they watched all of the organizations stroll together on the gymnasium floor.

Jarrett Moore, the president of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, said he wanted a lot of students, mainly freshman, to come and get introduced to each of the six NPHC organizations to see what each of them do.

Jarrett Moore said his goals were to perform without any errors and to get the crowd engaged.

He said he still anticipates performing in the show if he goes to graduate school next year.

Jarrett Moore said the message Omega Psi Phi wanted to send is that they may party hard, but they also work hard.

“We got the highest GPA out of all the fraternities on campus right now, (and) we take a lot of pride in that,” Jarrett Moore said.

Jamal Moore, a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and Jarrett’s brother, said the fraternity is looking forward to the feedback from students.

“A lot of people have been saying, compared the other years, student involvement is decreasing, so we’re definitely looking forward to seeing how the students react and who came out to support us,” Jamal Moore said.

Jamal Moore said his goals for the show were to put on the best show Omega Psi Phi could and get student involvement back to normal.

He said performing felt good. Though Jamal Moore normally does not like receiving attention, he enjoyed the audience’s support at the show.

Jamal Moore said the fraternity only practiced the routine for about three or four days.

Kyla Gipson, a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, said she wanted people to have fun with the sorority while they were performing.

“I looked forward to the crowd,” Gipson said. “I wanted to see how people were about to get hyped and I wanted to see the energy of the crowd because if they are (turned up) then we will be (turned up).”

Gipson said the message Zeta Phi Beta intended on sending was about how hard they work.

“When you work hard you get good results, so that was one of the biggest things,” Gipson said.

Jerome Montgomery, a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, said he wanted to show what the fraternity does outside of education.

Montgomery said he wanted the crowd to have fun with them and get to know the members of his fraternity.

“Just for (students) to enjoy us and get to know us on a fun level and not just seeing us around campus as stuck-up Greeks,” Montgomery said. “It’s really just to get into it with the crowd.”

Bria Caldwell, the first vice president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, said she is ready for the new semester with her sorority.

“We’re definitely coming out hard; we’re definitely coming out strong,” Caldwell said.

Amanda White, the president of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, said she wanted everyone to have fun because the Greek system is meant to unite those in the black community.

“Tonight was to send a message that yeah, we may be small in numbers, but we got big hearts,” White said. “We go out, we make sure we work hard in everything we do and we just wanted to showcase that.”

Janet Pernell can be reached at 581-2812 or jopernell@eiu.edu.