APO/A-Phi-Q conflict

[naraht]

Many years ago, I heard Alpha Phi Omega referred to as Lemonade. The balance of Leadership, Friendship and Service at each chapter were compared to the Lemon Juice, Sugar and Water in each glass of Lemonade. This comparison was extended by referring to the chapters at the HBCUs as Raspberry Lemonade...

Having watched co-ed extension efforts at a number of HBCUs, there is no question in my mind, that an extension effort at an HBCU designed to make them a copy of a chapter at the State's 1862 Land Grant school will almost certainly not work. This is even presuming that the school has never had an Alpha Phi Omega chapter and there there is no interaction with anyone who has ever pledged at a chapter at an HBCU. They *will* be expected by the other Greek Letter Organizations on campus (and probably administration) to have a plot, to order their pledges by height and to Step. They might even come up with the idea of referring to themselves as A Phi Que due to Omega Psi Phi being referred to as the Ques without anyone letting them know that this is done elsewhere. (This wouldn't occur to them at a school without Omega Psi Phi).

Yes, there were chapters at PWIs that were all-male, *but* as far as I can tell, some significant percentage of the chapters at PWIs that voted against going co-ed in 1976 did so later. As far as I can tell in the 32 years that chapters were *allowed* to go coed, *NO* functioning all-male chapter at an HBCU has decided to take on a co-ed pledge line (class). I'm still waiting for a specific example of this in the last couple of years since going co-ed was really pushed. (FA&MU?)

I've never heard of any concern about Alpha Phi Omega chapters starting to operate like an NPC (Hist White) sorority. The NPC chapters wouldn't want us counted in with them and unless the greek system is incredibly weak, they wouldn't consider including us in their rush concept. Just because a chapter starts blackballing doesn't mean that they are emulating the NPC. I'd also be interested in any chapter with a set upper limit on the number of pledges that they will take that isn't done with the idea of keeping the pledges from overwhelming a small chapter (If a chapter of 8 wants no more than 12 pledges, I can understand that)

Also, let's make it clear that there are chapters and members of chapters which refer to themselves as A Phi Que that are in perfect agreement with the National Fraternity on policy on membership and gender. Their activities in various areas (pledging, fellowship, competition, etc) may be those that the chapter at University of Alaska - Southeast would never consider doing (and would be stupid to do), but that doesn't mean they aren't doing just fine.

On the other hand, as far as I can tell, both Viking *and* Rising Sun as any part of a self description at the individual or a group *do* indicate a discontent with at least the current policy of forcing chapters to go co-ed and almost certainly discontent with the decision of the Fraternity to admit women in the first place. *NO* alumni association referring to itself with either of those terms will *ever* admit a woman. The Fraternity as a whole has never placed any rules on who a geographical alumni association must accept as members and until that is done, the fraternity is accepting de facto all-male alumni associations (Men of the Rising Sun - (city name)), even beyond those which exist for inactive chapters which have never admitted women. (For example Mu Gamma - Morgan State U).

As for websites on Tripod, I have no idea the last time that Jesse updated it...

Let me know if there is any issue on the thread I haven't covered...