AOII officially disbands Washington University chapter

[ASTalumna06]

https://www.studlife.com/news/2021/0...uitment-cycle/

The international executive board of Alpha Omicron Pi voted to withdraw the charter of Washington University’s chapter, immediately halting all chapter operations, Jan 21. Following months of calls for the abolition of Greek Life, AOII is now the second sorority at the University to officially disband after Pi Beta Phi in October.

Former AOII member junior Lacy Wilder said that the chapter almost unanimously decided to work towards disbanding during the summer of 2020, but they faced significant resistance from their national organization’s leadership.

“We got in contact with the AOII headquarters and explained to them our point of view and why we were trying to get our chapter abolished instead of reformed,” Wilder said. “And headquarters was not particularly receptive to what we had to say; they very much dominated all of our conversations, and they didn’t really see where we were coming from in terms of wanting to get our charter revoked, even if [we] as individuals personally had had a good experience in our sorority.”

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"Headquarters’ main reason for revoking our charter was the significant drop in membership,” Wilder said. “Which is fine, except it’s not the reason that we wanted our charter to be abolished. We felt like they weren’t necessarily receptive to our concerns about why we actually wanted the charter revoked.”

Several former members of AOII are working with the Greek Life abolition movement to call for other chapters to relinquish their charters and to discourage students from going through the rush process.

“I would encourage people who are considering going through recruitment to really take a step back and look outside of themselves and listen to members of the LGBT community, Black and Indigenous people of color and people from marginalized socioeconomic groups, and really take stock of their experiences and how they’ve been harmed by the institution of Greek Life before you think about how you might personally benefit,” Wilder said.

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During the fall 2020 semester, multiple other sororities attempted to officially close their chapters, including Delta Gamma and Kappa Delta. However, largely due to a lack of receptiveness from the national organizations, those efforts have failed to yield results. Additionally, some sorority members who deactivated during the summer have chosen to rejoin Greek Life.