Quote:
Originally Posted by naraht
DO is a professional sorority but co-ed since 1979
KKPsi is Fraternity, band specific affiliated with TBS
Mu Psi Epsilon Sorority went from social sorority, to honorary, to professional to co-ed professional
Phi Beta Fraternity started as a women's group and is for music and the performing arts and is professional
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia is social fraternity which was professional, went co-ed because of that and then went to being an all-male social
Sigma Alpha Iota lists itself as professional, but is a fraternity for women (no idea how they are getting around title IX)
TBS is Fraternity, band specific affiliated with KKPsi
And TBS, SAI, KKY and PMA-S put out joint statements in 2005 indicating that each fulfills a unique mission and that simultaneous membership between KKY/TBS and PMA-S/SAI was acceptable.
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I'll try shed a little light for you, if I can. (Hey, you started the thread and you started the hijack.
)
Seven organizations participate in the National Interfraternity Music Council. They are, in order of founding:
- Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (1898), founded as a social fraternity for male musical students, it came to describe itself as a professional fraternity until the 1980s, when it reverted to being a social fraternity. Still all male (except for about 200 female initiates from the late 70s and early 80s).
- Sigma Alpha Iota (1903), founded as a music fraternity for women. Still all female.
- Mu Phi Epsilon (1903), founded as a music sorority, then became an honor society (1936), then a professional music sorority (1944). Now co-ed.
- Delta Omicron (1909), founded as a music sorority. Now co-ed.
- Phi Beta (1912), originally founded as a sorority for women majoring in music and speech, now a professional arts fraternity. Now co-ed.
- Kappa Kappa Psi (1919), founded as an honorory band service fraternity. Now co-ed.
- Tau Beta Sigma (1946), founded as an honorory band service sorority; it has a formal relationship with Kappa Kappa Psi. Now co-ed.
By the 60s, all of these organizations considered themselves "professional" and were members of what became the Professional Fraternities Association. (All but Phi Mu Alpha are still members.) As a result of Title IX, professional fraternities were basically required to be co-ed or lose university/college recognition. DO, Mu Phi, Phi Beta, KKPsi and TBS all went co-ed. SAI did not; the Department of Education, after reviewing things like SAI's purposes and mission, ruled that it met the definition in Title IX of a social organization and therefore did not have to be co-ed. (It calls itself an "International Music Fraternity" for women. I don't think they refer to themselves as "professional" anymore.)
Phi Mu Alpha amended its governing laws to enable the National Executive Committee to allow chapters, on a case by case basis, to initiate women
if necessary to avoid the chapter losing recognition by the host institution. Only a relatively few chapters received this permission. In 1983, Phi Mu Alpha also received a letter from the Dept of Education ruling that it was a social organization and did not have to be co-ed, and in the mid 80s, the fraternity officially again described itself as a social fraternity, banned the initiation of women and began undoing the "professionalization" of previous decades.
For reasons that are still debated but lie in historical as well as other considerations, the current status is that one can be a member of Sinfonia or SAI and also of KKPsi or TBS. At least from Sinfonia's perspective, this lies in the fact that KKPsi and TBS consider themselves honorary and service, not social, and are specific to band, not music in general. But among Sinfonia, SAI, Mu Phi and DO, you can only belong to one.
To get this back a little to topic, SAI, Mu Phi and DO also have an agreement that where at least two of them are present on a campus, they will form a campus interfraternity music council. Chapters of other organizations (Sinfonia, KKPsi, TBS) can join as well, but are not part of this formal agreement. Meanwhile, some chapters of Phi Mu Alpha belong to their campus's IFC.
Any clearer?