Morehouse College recently held its orientation for the new academic year and once again solidified its welcome ceremony as one of the most distinguished events in the country. In a video posted to social media, hundreds of new Black students, elegantly dressed in their suits, can be seen walking through the halls while being welcomed by upperclassmen who were singing the school's famous anthem.
"I got a feeling somebody's trying to sneak in our House," the crowd sang in unison as the new students walked through the building.
Some of the men are seen smiling from ear-to-ear while others are nearly brought to tears. The upperclassmen, who were locked arm-in-arm while singing and welcoming their younger peers, formed a line that extends from inside the hallway to the outside of the building. While receiving greetings from their brothers, the new students proceed with a straight line and walk outside in the night.
The Atlanta HBCU describes its orientation program as "a week of exciting, enriching, stimulating and life-changing experiences designed to prepare new students for life."
The school's orientation also includes Spirit Night, where new students gather at a chapel to interact with alumni and other members of the community. Omega Psi Psi brothers are seen doing a step routine here while chanting "we don't need no music."
They, in fact, did not.
“I suspect that you are here because you want to become a different kind of man,” President John Silvanus Wilson Jr., class of 1979, told new students in 2016. “Not just a regular man, but a Morehouse Man. In order to do that, you have to have inside you, right now, a sense of destiny.”
Taylor McCleod, who graduated from Morehouse in 2013, said the new student orientation "makes you realize that you’re not going to have a normal college experience."
“You won’t be able to understand Morehouse traditions without going through NSO,” McCleod told Maroon Tiger Media. “NSO is a rite of passage for Morehouse students.”
Morehouse emphasized that health safety protocols will continue to be implemented during the new year due to the ongoing pandemic, NewsBreak reported.
Although the exact data isn't available for all 105 HBCUs in the U.S., many of the institutions are reporting an increase in enrollment, according to Forbes. A significant increase in HBCU applications was particularly seen in 2017 following the election of Donald Trump. Howard professor Robert Palmer said the spike in interest is attributed to "the racism that was becoming clear and pronounced in society due to Trump.”
“Students chose to apply to HBCUs because they knew they would feel safe there,” Palmer told Forbes.
Morehouse is home to 2,206 students. The school received 3,554 fall applications, according to the latest data on the school's website.
