Joining a Service Sorority? - Already in NPC
 

I should know this, but....

One of my collegiates has transferred to Clemson. Great for her, sad for us. :( She just asked me if she is allowed to join a service sorority (non-NPC, of course). I have to tell you, I don't know! I know some people are in APO or OPA (hope I got that right) and there are other service groups that have become more popular recently, at least here. Is she allowed to join a service sorority?

I'm so focused on recruitment right now, I can't wrap my brain around this. How sad is that.

With my sorority, Omega Phi Alpha (or as you said OPA), you can be in another social sorority and be in OPA as well. I have many sisters who are also DST, SGRho, KKG, APhi, SAI, as well as many others!

*Btw, OPA does not have a chapter at Clemson, although it would be cool to have a chapter there!

Im sure it's in the stickies somewhere, but i feel like it's allowed.

Is your org not at Clemson? If she could transfer to a chapter there, Id imagine that would be ideal, and then take advantage of the service opportunities there. Or, spearhead a service movement within that chapter.

:shrugs shoulders:

Nope, no Alpha Xi Delta at Clemson. Maybe one day.

Thanks for confirming!!!

Yes she can.

As long as the sorority is non-NPC, she's OK

It is allowed.

One of my AEPhi sisters became an APO brother long before becoming an AEPhi. I myself was approached to pledge APO after I joined AEPhi (but I chose not to pursue membership).

Yep! As long as the service org is not an associate chapter of her school's phc...or so it is at ours

To the NPCers...is this true? I thought that the restriction was for NPCs, not members of campus panhellenic councils?

/swerve

Well I'm not an NPCer, but yes its true. My chapter became an associate member of our school's panhellenic council. We did have a girl who became one of our pledges, and then later found out she was also pledging an NPC sorority on campus. She ended up having to choose one or the other.

What happens if (for example) Susie joins OPA at State University, then transfers to University of State (where OPA is on the campus panhellenic) -- she wouldn't be allowed to pledge an NPC if she wanted?

my campus is the same, you can't join npc if you're in an associate chapter of the panhel. council on your campus and you can't join the associate chapter if you're in npc.
this is where i get worried because my service chapter was asked to join our council and i want to do a social as well but it's split to a vote...so i'm hoping...*praying* that they decide not to join because i really want them both.

That sucks, but I can see the logic in it, because otherwise it would mean double representation. But what is somebody is already part of both?

The immediate past president of the APO chapter at ODU is also AXiD.

If OPA is on U of State's campus Panhel, Susie will probably find that her experience will be much more "social" than it was at State U and will feel no need to pledge an NPC sorority.

Penn State (nittanygirl's school) is the EXCEPTION to this, not the rule. Service sororities and fraternities usually are not associated (fully or partially) with Panhel or IFC. And if they are, I question 1) the dumbassness of the school and 2) if the chapter is putting service first.

She may not feel the need to join, but she'd still be allowed to, correct?

And I've never seen a service organization on IFC/campus panhellenic -- that's why I initially posed the question.

Yes, she'd be allowed to. She may get the cold shoulder from the members of her service sorority if she does, however.

I spoke a little harshly in my first post - I think that usually it's the school not understanding what groups are what and insisting that everything with Greek letters and pledging be on a council, even if it is an ill fit. (This includes KKPsi/TBS, Alpha Psi Omega, etc.) The school creates the problems with dual membership where there should not be any. (Oh and I'm not even touching the issue of APO/GSS/OPA at HBCUs.)

Got it. That's what I thought. Thanks.

I understood what you meant. :)

I know this is an old thread but I just stumbled across it as I was researching associate membership in campus panhellenics.

33girl is right. Even if an OPA chapter is a member of their local Panhellenic Council, their members are free to join the NPC chapters there and vice versa. The example that Dreamful Spirit referred to is true, too. But the problem was purely one of time management. She just didn't have time to pledge both organizations at the same time. She had to choose, not because the local Panhellenic Council required it but because she just couldn't keep up with both pledge programs at the same time. There was no restriction by either of the groups she pledged, nor by the Panhellenic Council.

I"ve never run into a school that forbid a student from joining two groups that on other campuses they'd be able to join both, but I'm curious. APO doesn't have any membership limitations in that regard and in fact prior to about the 1960s you often see notes in our National Magazine on how many of the Social Greeks were represented in specific chapters.

My advice to people is generally, Go ahead and join both, just don't join both in the same semester. I had brothers in my APO chapter who had done it in both orders, APO first, then Social and Social first, then APO.