AEPi chapter disaffiliates from National Organization

[watch]

I had never heard of a chapter disaffiliating from the national organization before but it says it happened before on this campus.

The Tufts chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) has voted to disaffiliate from its national organization due to a difference of opinion, the brothers wrote in a statement.

“Our long-term goals do not align with those of our national organization,” the brothers wrote in an open letter emailed to the Daily.

The chapter, which was founded on Tufts campus in 1940, voted unanimously to disaffiliate and brought the decision to the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life yesterday, according to Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Su McGlone.

“The fraternity came forward as a whole,” she said.

McGlone said the university stands by the former AEPi brothers as they make this transition.

“They’ve decided to cut ties with the national organization,” McGlone said. “The university supports their right to affiliate as an independent organization.”

A Tufts chapter disaffiliating from a national fraternity is not unprecedented, according to McGlone.

“ATO had a similar situation,” she said. In 1974, the fraternity separated from the national Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) organization in order to accept both men and women, according to the ATO of Massachusetts website.

The former brothers of AEPi can continue to live on campus, because the house they occupy is owned by the university, according to McGlone. They plan to transition to either an independent social organization or a chapter of a different national fraternity, according to their announcement.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what they decide to do. They have a lot of options,” McGlone said. “I really don’t know how it’s going to pan out.”

Source: http://tuftsdaily.com/news/2015/01/3...-organization/

Dear the Tufts University Community,

Recently the Alpha Epsilon Pi Chapter on campus has made some very important decisions regarding the future of our fraternity and we wanted to let you know about them.

As a chapter, we pride ourselves on developing leaders within our community and the world. We hold our members to an extremely high standard and expect them to represent our chapter well. We welcome any individuals willing to commit to our mission of giving back to the community and our ethos of brotherhood.

We strongly believe in diversity of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, background and beliefs. This diversity provides individuals with the tools necessary to succeed as leaders in the modern world.

Recently we have come to realize our long-term goals do not align with those of our national organization. In a unanimous vote our chapter decided to disaffiliate ourselves from Alpha Epsilon Pi’s International Headquarters. We are excited to move forward and continue our mission of developing future leaders on campus.

We are transitioning to become a Tufts-based fraternity, with a new name, with the goal of re-affiliating with a different national fraternity or maintaining our independent status. We are proud of our members and thankful for the Tufts administration and many leaders in the community who have fully supported our right to be recognized as an independent organization.

Sincerely,

The Former Members of Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity

Source: http://tuftsdaily.com/opinion/2015/0...pi-fraternity/

[watch]

Interesting comments:

They're disaffiliating from the national organization because a rep from nationals came and told them that they were only allowed to accept jewish members in their newest class. Obviously their newest class isn't entirely jewish, hence the conflict.

The national won't let them consider non-Jewish members. They recently got pressured to turn down a Black pledge and Asian pledge, and they refused. I can't argue with their decision.

Allegedly, a national rep came to check out the under-representation of jewish brothers in their house (their national organization is billed as a *jewish* fraternity after all) but supposedly things got a little nasty about just how important that goal is and what kind of people the brothers were for undervaluing that goal.

So they realized that the house and the national organization had differing viewpoints and they chose to split.

That's the gossip anyway. Cant' speak to it's veracity.

Hope that helps

The mission statement of Alpha Epsilon Pi states: "our basic purpose is to provide the opportunity for a Jewish man to be able to join a Jewish organization whose purpose is not specifically religious, but rather social and cultural in nature. Alpha Epsilon Pi is a Jewish fraternity, though non-discriminatory and open to all who are willing to espouse its purpose and values." The chapter deciding to disaffiliate would be due to years of moving in a different direction from the values (or identity) of the national organization. Throughout the country there are many chapters that have a multitude of races including African American and Asian - the difference is they joined to be a part of a Jewish fraternity. Here at Tufts, it's inevitable that if they joined wanting the Jewish experience - the local chapter would keep intact their Jewish identity. The chapter however would most likely tell students that's our national identity - not here at Tufts. Here at Tufts we do our own thing. The local chapter mislead students looking at joining AEPi and would hide the sole purpose of their existence on campus - to be a Jewish fraternity. That's an unfortunate reality.

There are over 73 national fraternities. Only one is Jewish. If the students had joined for that experience - there would never had been any disparity from the local chapter.

Good luck to these boys. The national will find new members who are willing to espouse its purpose and values - brothers who would love that Jewish Greek experience. This local chapter will have to create a new identity as they move forward. Hopefully the new identity they try to create will make it through the years - or maybe the new identity will change from the values of "giving back to the community and our ethos of brotherhood". Chance are, they will also change from this identity and fall apart, but this time all on their own.

Only time will tell.

Would this last one mean it's possible there will be this AEPi local and an AEPi national on the same campus? The newspaper article sounded like everyone in the chapter was disaffiliating.

And if it's "non-discriminatory and open to all" then why is there a problem? Doesn't make sense.

[DEVODUDE]

watch;Would this last one mean it's possible there will be this AEPi local and an AEPi national on the same campus? The newspaper article sounded like everyone in the chapter was disaffiliating.

And if it's "non-discriminatory and open to all" then why is there a problem? Doesn't make sense.

I agree. That does not make any sense at all. Just by reading their National Mission Statement and the article and comments by the local chapter, it seems to me that their National Org. is double-talking themselves with it comes to the recruitment of members. They welcome all men to seek membership, but they would rather have all their chapters have all Jewish members instead. Does anyone else reading that as well?

[naraht]

I wouldn't say they want all Jewish men, I'd say they want a certain percentage (say greater than 60%). So if you've got a chapter that is 30% Jewish, while any single person could come in, regardless of being Jewish or not, that's fine, but a certain percentage of Jews is wanted...

[aephi alum]

Sad to say, I am not at all surprised. An incident happened at my school ~25 years ago where AEPi's nationals became concerned that the local chapter was drifting from its Jewish identity. The chapter was reorganized and almost every brother was told that he was no longer an active. Of the handful who were invited to remain (all of whom, naturally, were Jewish), all but one deaffiliated in solidarity with their other brothers. They formed a local fraternity, and, several years later, became a chapter of a different fraternity. The one brother who did remain worked with AEPi's nationals to recolonize the chapter, which happened almost immediately. I don't think they've had a single non-Jewish brother since - certainly they didn't while I was in school.

As an aside, I will say this about AEPhi, which also has a Jewish identity. We don't care what religion a PNM is, as long as she's ok with Jewish ideals.

Best of luck to the men at Tufts.

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by aephi alum

Sad to say, I am not at all surprised. An incident happened at my school ~25 years ago where AEPi's nationals became concerned that the local chapter was drifting from its Jewish identity. The chapter was reorganized and almost every brother was told that he was no longer an active. Of the handful who were invited to remain (all of whom, naturally, were Jewish), all but one deaffiliated in solidarity with their other brothers. They formed a local fraternity, and, several years later, became a chapter of a different fraternity. The one brother who did remain worked with AEPi's nationals to recolonize the chapter, which happened almost immediately. I don't think they've had a single non-Jewish brother since - certainly they didn't while I was in school.

As an aside, I will say this about AEPhi, which also has a Jewish identity. We don't care what religion a PNM is, as long as she's ok with Jewish ideals.

Best of luck to the men at Tufts.

It was a few years before my time but the AEPi chapter at my school was closed down by nationals for not being Jewish enough. Or at least that's what the rumor was.

[Sen's Revenge]

I'm curious about any chapter having "long term goals."

I just have more questions after this article.

[robinseggblue]

Originally Posted by Sen's Revenge

I'm curious about any chapter having "long term goals."

I just have more questions after this article.

Returning to Jewish roots probably is a long term goal. This article was an interesting read: http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Je...eir-roots-pg-7

Originally Posted by aephi alum

As an aside, I will say this about AEPhi, which also has a Jewish identity. We don't care what religion a PNM is, as long as she's ok with Jewish ideals.

From finding the article above I came across this situation at MIT: http://tech.mit.edu/V126/N15/15aephi.html

I have to say it's unbelievable to me that the chapter functioned for years without I guess making it clear that it was founded on Jewish ideals just because that's so much part of their history.

ADPi was founded on ideals from Christianity but we're also accepting of all religions.

[Shellfish]

The AEPi chapter at Penn decided to go local a few years ago, but for reasons of risk management (or lack thereof): http://www.thedp.com/article/2012/04...ty_recognition. There's supposedly a new colony there, however.

Their national had reorganized the chapter sometime back in the late 1980s to make it more Jewish. It was surprising to find out about its history because when I was there, almost nobody was Jewish, and this at a school with a large Jewish population. The SDT chapter also underwent a reboot back then.

[Sen's Revenge]

Unorganized thoughts ahead:

I think it's important that organizations established for, and maintaining a continuing mission for marginalized/minority communities, maintain that character.

All NIC/IFC fraternities are not the same, don't recruit the same, and shouldn't really be judged the same.

I don't know how or why AEPi does the things it does, but I support their right to maintain their national identity. I wouldn't like a chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha that was composed based on local experiences rather than a national mission.

I recognize this is not the case for many other fraternities that AEPi is frequently compared against.

I also think what "whiteness" means in 2015 has something to do with why locally, some AEPi chapters don't feel the need to be Jewy (in the words of Sarah Silverman).

[PiKA2001]

Good points Sen and I agree that an organization has the right to preserve it's "identity" but at the same time I think it's a very old fashioned way of doing business and is extremely limiting to the chapters and to the fraternity on a national level. What was needed in 1930 may not be necessary in 2015 and I think they should lax some of those restrictions if they want to remain competitive in the conference.

[DEVODUDE]

PiKA2001:Good points Sen and I agree that an organization has the right to preserve it's "identity" but at the same time I think it's a very old fashioned way of doing business and is extremely limiting to the chapters and to the fraternity on a national level. What was needed in 1930 may not be necessary in 2015 and I think they should lax some of those restrictions if they want to remain competitive in the conference

Very good statement PiKA2001!!!

ZBT:"BROTHERHOOD & BEYOND"

[33girl]

Rudey had a good post on here years ago about AEPi being a Jewish fraternity rather than a Jewish interest fraternity like ZBT. I'd find it but my head hurts from the super bowl.

In answer to watch's question, this group of guys will probably call themselves Alpha Pi or something. Whether the natl recolonizes there depends on their perceived ROI.

[Sen's Revenge]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

Good points Sen and I agree that an organization has the right to preserve it's "identity" but at the same time I think it's a very old fashioned way of doing business and is extremely limiting to the chapters and to the fraternity on a national level. What was needed in 1930 may not be necessary in 2015 and I think they should lax some of those restrictions if they want to remain competitive in the conference.

That presumes they believe it's a competition to begin with. I don't believe that they do.

[Sen's Revenge]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Rudey had a good post on here years ago about AEPi being a Jewish fraternity rather than a Jewish interest fraternity like ZBT. I'd find it but my head hurts from the super bowl.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=19055