[33girl]

I think the "are we really Greek" will get different reactions from different people, depending on what they consider "really Greek." If you asked Joe Blow on the street what a Greek organization is, he'd probably say a group of men or women that live together in a house and have selective membership policies. Just by that definition APO is disqualified since we do not have "official" houses. We also do not have selective membership (but you do have to complete the requirements of the pledge program to initiate).

I honestly have closer bonds with my ASA sisters than my APO brothers, but there are APO brothers from my chapter who lived together (as I did w/ my sisters) and are every bit as close to each other.

ASA started out somewhat like SAI, as a social-educational sorority. We eventually came to the conclusion that what we did was practically identical to what the purely social sororities did and joined NPC. I believe AXO started out musically based. Who knows, maybe 100 years from now if SAI has lots of chapters that are leaning more toward what NPC does, they will do the same thing.

I put NPC, NIC and NPHC groups in the same category (since "social" seems to be a dirty word anymore) since they are all groups where one has to be invited to join on intangible merits (other than just grades). Maybe not the most PC way to put it but it's the only thing that fits.