I'm not black. I practically glow in the dark ...

What is Omega Phi Alpha?

And why does it spell Alpha Phi Omega backwards? I just realized that.

-Rudey

It's a service sorority. I think it was inspired, at least, by Alpha Phi Omega.

Cosign on Jubilance1922:
Please define a lot of campus!

I suspect that NPHC groups are just more interesting to you on some level so you just pick up on the NPHC stuff faster. Personally, I know I oftern went out of my way to avoid discussing NPC greek life with non members because I felt like I was boring them. Maybe your NPC friends feel similarly? Have you ever asked your NPC friends to talk to you about their experiences?

Also, I think it really depends on the campus. You feel it's much more of the culutre to know about NPHC, I'd disagree with that based on my personal experiences. (I attended a school with a huge population but very few black students.) I was shocked when I learned that there were members of DST at my school. I was excited to learn they were there, but my reaction could be summed up as "where have they been hiding?". ((hijack. My junior high pe teacher used to wear her DSQ track suit to school. I believe it was the first set of greek letters I had seen in real life. /hijack))

To help Rudey out:

www.omegaphialpha.org

And yes, we were inspired by APO!:D

They have a HIGH level of visibility and a HIGH level of involvement in their comunities because that's the POINT of their organizations. As far as I know, NONE of the NPHC groups were founded as SOCIAL organizations. They were all meant to better the BLACK community. Whereas my NPC sorority was founded because there were five lonely woman all alone at an all male school and they needed the social connection with other women. NPCs always were philanthropic but it had way more to do with the expectations of their place in society and their religion that about "lifting up" the community.

That is NOT true. Just as your founders were lonely women, my founders were 7 Black women in Indiana (home of the KKK at the time) trying to educate themselves at a school that didn't want them.

All the NPHC have a social component to them and their foundings. But it is not the SOLE purpose of their foundings, as you have stated.

Alpha Phi Omega hasn't always been coed :)

Nu Chapter's website has lots of info: www.cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/opa/

People are getting worked up because your not being clear. I even asked, very clearly, that if you are not refering to stereotypes to please give examples of each NPHC group's personality.

{sidebar: Just to note. I'm not taking your questions and comments as degrading. I honestly get the feeling that you're trying to get an uderstanding to something that you can't express clearly. Everyone's got to keep in mind that on a MB we read our own thoughts and emotions into other peoples posts. /sidebar}

If I'm reading this correctly, you feel that the NPHC as a whole has a stronger national presence that the NPC. Am I close? Not that, for example, DST has a clearer national personality that KKG.

If that's what you're implying, I think I'd agree. As we touched on earlier the NPHC is more involved in the entire community, from auxillory (sp?) groups to the actual chapters. NPC does have groups that are involved with young children (ie KD and Girl Scouts and KAT and CASA) but as a whole the NPC does not make an effort to be a backbone of the community (which is the way NPHC comes across to me). NPC would probably interpret one of our groups working closely with high school girls as a recruitment violation. Unfair advantage.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply that there was zero social motivation. Just that the community service was a MUCH bigger factor.

just fyi: my founders weren't really wanted at their school either.

I know that my situation in Saint Louis is not unique. Many schools do not recognize NPHC organizations and instead city-wide chapters are common. I am not maintaining that this is the case the majority of the time, just that it is not uncommon. For St. Louis to have city wide chapter that means, St. Louis U, Wash U, Fontbonne, Webster, and several other schools don't formally recognize the chapter as a campus organization.

This isn't a dig at the NPHC at all. Perhaps someone else can provide more detail, but some schools consider the NPHC organizations to be discriminatory because they only accept black men and women. (NOTE: I know this is not always or even necessarily often the case, but I've seen topics here where NPHC members openly question the sense of having white people as their sorors. I'm not judging this one way or the other, just commenting)

Precisely my point! :)

This threw me for a loop. It's a lot easier for who to keep 4 straight than 6. I thought we were talking about the individual member orgs, not the councils themselves. The councils were used to referenc which orgs. to which we were referring. For example, DST's national personality v. ZPhiB's national personality. One is different from the other, but standardized within that org.

*hijack* YAY for Alpha Omega Citywide chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated! :D btw, there used to be a campus based chapter at UMSL, but because of low numbers it eventually merged with Alpha Omega. *end of hijack*