[MysticCat]

Originally posted by texas*princess
I'm not a member of SAI, but I am pretty sure it is a member of the Professional Fraternity Association. I am not sure if that is different than government recognition.

It is different. The PFA is just an umbrella group, much like the NIC or the NPC, for professional GLOs or GLOs with a professional/disciplinary area/special interest background. Actually, the membership requirement in the PFA is rather broad: "To be eligible for membership, a fraternity shall be national or international in character and shall charter its institutional chapters only at appropriately accredited colleges, universities, or professional schools. The fraternity shall be identified by, or related to, a field of study or common interest." (Constitution of the PFA, Article III, "Membership," emphasis added.) The continued affiliation of SAI and Phi Mu Alpha with the PFA may (I'm just speculating here) be related to the desire to be part of some umbrella group, and this is the one that has fit best in the past. I understand that Phi Mu Alpha is considering membership in the NIC, but that hasn't happened yet, so the PFA I suppose fills the need for now. And as has been pointed out above, SAI is very unlikely to seek membership in the NPC. There may (again speculating) also be some historical sentimental hesistancy to break with the PFA, since I think both SAI and Sinfonia helped start it.

Originally posted by RedRoseSAI
That's true, but S_A_I is correct in that we are registered with the IRS as a social organization.

Originally posted by S_A_I
Not trying to start an argument - I was just saying that for tax purposes, we are social.

It's not the IRS, nor does it have anything to do with tax purposes. Title IX provides that any educational institution that shelters an organization that discriminates on the basis of sex can be denied federal funds. An exemption is made for social fraternal organizations. Both SAI and Phi Mu Alpha have received determinations from the US Department of Education that they are social fraternal organizations, hence their ability to remain single sex.

Originally posted by erniegurl00
Here are my two cents. . . I agree that it depends on the campus.

Exactly! This thread seems to go in circles:

"Yes, we are."
"No, you're not."
"Yes, they are."
"No, they're not."

The reality is that whether members of a "professional" GLO are considered "real Greeks" (whatever that means, exactly) will depend on how the members of that GLO act on the particular campus with which one is familiar. I have said before that I know of Sinfonia chapters that act like "professional fraternities," even though it has been 20 years since we decided to reject identification as a "professional fraternity" and return to our roots as a social fraternity. On such a campus, I would not be surprised to hear a member of an IFC-fraternity question Sinfonia's "greekness." (And I might question whether such a chapter needs a refresher course on Phi Mu Alpha. ) On the other hand, I would be surprised to hear such questioning on a campus where Sinfonia is fully involved in the IFC.

The bottom line: it is impossible to resolve a question like this on a board like this, because people's experiences can be so different. The best we can hope for is an appreciation of how any given group sees itself and an understanding that the situation on our own campus may or may not represent the situation elsewhere.

Originally posted by erniegurl00
Honestly guys, it's just what you put into it.

Again, well said. Would that instead of putting all of this energy into decided who is a "real Greek," we put the energy into bettering our own GLO, improving the Greek system as a whole, and improving Greek perception among the non-Greek public (to whom distinctions like social and professional are meaningless).