Thread: Diversity
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Old 03-22-2005, 12:31 PM
Virtuous Woman Virtuous Woman is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2000
Posts: 298
Quote:
Men are not interested in pledging APO because all they see is women and if they do pledge its to get a girl.
What about other organizations that are co-ed? What do they do to maintain a more balanced sex ratio? I think chapters that lack male membership should actively recruit male members. The pledge process should be designed to weed out those who aren't truly commited to the fraternity and are just using Alpha Phi Omega as a dating service (although I must say that in my almost 4 years in the fraternity, I've never witnessed this).

I can say in the case of Beta Iota. It is as diverse as NYU is. The school is mostly White and so is the chapter. The other chapters in the section (97) are at schools with much higher percentages of minorities and it is reflected in the chapters. There is even a chapter in the section that is all-Black due to the demographics of the school. I think the diversity issue in APO is a result of the lack of diversity in higher education.

Now all of what I was saying was only referring to racial diversity but there are other types of diversity that I feel are more important. You can have a chapter at an HBCU and have a diverse membership (i.e. different majors, hometowns, religious beliefs, political beliefs, etc.). I think that this diversity was what was envisioned by our Lightbearer when he said

"The summer of my junior year was spent as an Associate Camp Director at the Easton Scout Reservation. Here I was impressed with the religious tolerance in the hearts of the boys. This I have not found so easily among older people. at camp,

Scouts of the Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant faiths worked together in everything... "

When I think of diversity in Alpha Phi Omega, I think of different people with different backgrounds and different outlooks with the same passion for making the world a better place joined together in friendship. That, to me, is Alpha Phi Omega.
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