Several Ferris State University stu­dents are imper­son­at­ing the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity that has been sus­pended from cam­pus for 10 years.

The alleged stu­dents in ques­tion include Marvel Pridgeon, Timothy Hogue, Marc Powell, Joshua Jones and Dion Davenport, for­mer Omega mem­bers, who have been seen wear­ing Omega Psi Phi para­pher­na­lia. This apparel includes gold boots, army pants along with pur­ple or gold shirts wield­ing the Greek let­ters of Omega.

Davenport was released from the fra­ter­nity for his involve­ment with the non-Omega mem­bers. The Omega Psi Phi Fraternity invoked a self-imposed sus­pen­sion in 1999 after the last Omegas grad­u­ated from Ferris.

“We sus­pended our chap­ter to reduce imposters since there were no act­ing Omega mem­bers on cam­pus for awhile,” said Alvin Walker, offi­cial Omega Psi Phi mem­ber and 1987 FSU graduate

Walker heard rumors dur­ing sum­mer 2009 that these stu­dents were per­pet­u­at­ing a fake fra­ter­nity under the Omega name. Walker, along with other Omega mem­bers, con­tacted the false pledges and informed them that pro­ceed­ing with their activ­i­ties would result in rather severe reprimanding.

“We asked the young men if they had been involved with the fake Omega fra­ter­nity, and they denied it,” said Walker. “However, at the Ferris Ice Breaker Dance in September, the same stu­dents per­formed wear­ing Omega apparel and per­form­ing a tra­di­tional Omega ‘step dance’.”

Omega Psi Phi began a for­mal inves­ti­ga­tion to stop these per­pe­tra­tors. Climent Edmond, 10^th District Representative for Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and the Michigan State Representative for Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Fionn Williams, offi­cial Omega mem­ber and Walker met again with the stu­dents to dis­cuss the issue. The men also tried to gather infor­ma­tion from the stu­dents about which offi­cial Omega mem­ber had encour­aged them to cre­ate an unap­proved pledge process.

“The young men are very tight-lipped about an offi­cial member’s involve­ment; how­ever, we do not know who would encour­age their behav­ior,” said Walker.

Walker sus­pects that Davenport’s expul­sion from Omega for his involve­ment with fake Omegas is a likely expla­na­tion for the stu­dents’ por­trayal of the fraternity.

Walker also sought to pledge the fol­low­ers full mem­ber­ship; how­ever, none of the stu­dents met the fra­ter­nity aca­d­e­mic require­ments, and some were not offi­cial Ferris stu­dents at the time.

The stu­dents have con­tin­ued to imper­son­ate the Omega fra­ter­nity and are rumored to be recruit­ing more mem­bers. The stu­dents have also begun weekly gath­er­ings called the “Thirsty Thursday” and dis­trib­ute cam­pus fliers about the events, accord­ing to Walker.

“These guys are car­ry­ing on a gang-like men­tal­ity through Omega,” said Walker. “We just want them to stop drag­ging our name in the mud.”

The Michigan chap­ter is cur­rently seek­ing legal coun­sel to pre­pare a law­suit against the stu­dents for false orga­ni­za­tion and slander.

Omega Psi Phi was founded in 1911 at his­tor­i­cally black Howard University by Professor Ernest E. Just and stu­dents Edgar A. Love, Oscar J. Cooper and Frank Coleman. The fra­ter­nity was estab­lished on broth­er­hood and friend­ship among black professionals.

The fraternity’s name is based on the ini­tials of the Greek phrase mean­ing “friend­ship is essen­tial to the soul” and remains the organization’s motto today. Omega is syn­ony­mous with famous African-American professionals.

“We take Omega very seri­ously and will do what­ever we can to pre­serve our good name,” said Walker. “We just don’t want oth­ers to be led astray.”

Attempts to con­tact alleged mem­bers of the fra­ter­nity were not returned as of press time.