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.”

.....
"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.

.....
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.

[thetalady]

It is hitting all of us across the country. We are all going to lose chapters to this AGL movement. For collegians, it is not enough to simply resign their memberships. They insist on destroying the chapter entirely so that NO one can join. They don't want it and no one else can have it either. Like a bunch of spoiled children.

[Cheerio]

Originally Posted by thetalady

It is hitting all of us across the country. We are all going to lose chapters to this AGL movement. For collegians, it is not enough to simply resign their memberships. They insist on destroying the chapter entirely so that NO one can join. They don't want it and no one else can have it either. Like a bunch of spoiled children.

Amen!

[carnation]

This actually sounds like a lot of these kids are mentally ill.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by thetalady

It is hitting all of us across the country. We are all going to lose chapters to this AGL movement. For collegians, it is not enough to simply resign their memberships. They insist on destroying the chapter entirely so that NO one can join. They don't want it and no one else can have it either. Like a bunch of spoiled children.

Yea, I really can't understand the logic behind this. All of these articles have quotes by current or ex-members who essentially say, "Well the (inter)national organization won't listen to us and won't support our want to burn everything to the ground!" Perhaps that's because you've been a member for five minutes and don't even understand the very thing you're looking to destroy.

[navane]

Originally Posted by thetalady

It is hitting all of us across the country. We are all going to lose chapters to this AGL movement. For collegians, it is not enough to simply resign their memberships. They insist on destroying the chapter entirely so that NO one can join. They don't want it and no one else can have it either. Like a bunch of spoiled children.

It's because they are thinking of this from a self-centered perspective. They seem to believe that this is *their* chapter and they want to close *their* chapter. The chapter is not "theirs", the chapter belongs to AOII.

Originally Posted by from the news article

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.

Can anyone expand on this? Did some members resign their membership and then petition to rejoin the chapter or did they join a different GLO?

[Cheerio]

Originally Posted by thetalady

...Like a bunch of spoiled children.

Veruca Salt isn't just a 90s alt rock band or a character from a book and a movie.

And don't forget to look toward whom they had, for the past four years, as a 'stellar example' of leadership of a country.

[33girl]

I assume this is because of groups pledging non-binary members.

I hate to break it to them, but I’ve gotten through 35 years being called a brother of Alpha Phi Omega and I haven’t suffered any long term issues from it.

[FSUZeta]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I assume this is because of groups pledging non-binary members.

I hate to break it to them, but I’ve gotten through 35 years being called a brother of Alpha Phi Omega and I haven’t suffered any long term issues from it.

Thank you!

[naraht]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I assume this is because of groups pledging non-binary members.

I hate to break it to them, but I’ve gotten through 35 years being called a brother of Alpha Phi Omega and I haven’t suffered any long term issues from it.

Even within Alpha Phi Omega it gets *complicated*.

For starters, APO Philippines uses Brothers for all male members and sisters for all female members, and a campus will actually have a fraternity chapter and a sorority chapter (or conceivably only one, in which case only members of only that gender can join at that school) (The history there is that all of the Little Sister groups were unified as Alpha Phi Sigma nationally, then as Alpha Phi Omega Auxiliary Sorority and *then* true equality.

In APO-USA, the general reason for the global use of the term brother is that the women that were joining chapters underground for equality wanted to be called brother since the "sisters" that other chapters had were little sisters and thus treated unequally. However I have run into a few chapters (Georgetown University in Washington DC springs to mind) where a good number of the women have at various times wanted to use the term sister, however the term sister has no official meaning in APO-USA.

For non-binary members, given the general usage of brothers in APO-USA, I don't expect a problem there with the terms brothers. (I have *no* idea what APO-Philippines would do)

[XAntoftheSkyX]

Originally Posted by naraht

Even within Alpha Phi Omega it gets *complicated*.

Two of the GLOs I interacted the most often with in college with, Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma, have dealt with membership like this even in the early to mid 00s. Not every campus would have both KKY and TBS, but because of Title IX rulings No one was barred from seeking membership in either group. Female members of KKY were still referred to as Brothers and male members of TBS would be called Sisters. At my campus, we had a couple of people that were male TBS sisters and female KKY brothers. No one made an issue of it then and from what I remember the reasons for an individual joining one over the other were personal and usually just meant they felt a stronger connection to one over the other even though both GLOs work in tandem for their service missions.

[DGTess]

Originally Posted by Cheerio

Veruca Salt isn't just a 90s alt rock band or a character from a book and a movie.

And don't forget to look toward whom they had, for the past four years, as a 'stellar example' of leadership of a country.

Not to mention the parents who raised them for 18.

[JayhawkAOII]

There is so much to unpack with this. I particularly love the idea that all of the issues will disappear if that evil Greek life would just go away. Its a very unrealistic view of life.

I live 4 blocks from campus and I routinely wear AOII-lettered clothing around when I walk the dog as a giant f-you to these shortsighted teenagers.

[carnation]

Originally Posted by JayhawkAOII

I I live 4 blocks from campus and I routinely wear AOII-lettered clothing around when I walk the dog as a giant f-you to these shortsighted teenagers.

I so love this.

[AGDee]

I don't understand why they aren't fixing it from within. They have the ability to be inclusive. So be inclusive and fix it that way, right?