[20344] in APO-L
Cultures of Alpha Phi Omega
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Randy Finder)
Wed Mar 24 12:09:43 1999
"Reply-To: "
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 12:07:21 -0400
Reply-To: Randy Finder <naraht@DRYCAS.CLUB.CC.CMU.EDU>
From: Randy Finder <naraht@DRYCAS.CLUB.CC.CMU.EDU>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
I may not address all of the issues brought up so far, but I'd like to
speak to some of them. My name is Randy Finder and I'm on staff in section
84. I was representative to the chapter at Howard University in 1993 and
as such I believe that I am the only staff representative to a
Historically black chapter in Region III in the last ten years.
In many ways Alpha Phi Omega chapters at the Historically Black colleges
(generally refered to as A Phi Q) have a culture as far from that of most
chapters at "general" universities as any cultural difference between
APO-USA and APO-Phil. A great deal of that is tied into the culture of the
black colleges and the resultant presures on the organization. (General
her means non historically black, not necessarily majority white. WHile
there are cultural effects from having an APO-USA chapter majority asian
(for example), I haven't seen anything that significant)
In my opinion the culture of the Black college discourages Alpha Phi Omega
and indeed any non-academic organization from being co-ed. Other
organizations are affected by this including such groups as Kappa Kappa
Psi (the band service fraternity) and Tau Beta Sigma (the band service
sorority). On many "general" campuses KKPsi is co-ed.
Some cultural differences between Alpha Phi Omega at "general"
universities(APO/APhiO) and Historically Black Colleges/
Universities(APhiQ) (There are some exceptions here, but theyare small)
1) Harder Pledging. For APhiQ chapters pledging is emotionally stressful
beyond any additional physical requirements. A pledge class/line is forced
together by pressures from the brotherhood. (This often includes physical
stresses)
2) Direct competition with Social Greeks. Most APO chapters I've seen make
a concious effort not to be grouped by the administration or the campus
community with the social greeks. If APO is grouped with anyone its
Circle-K, Habitat and Alterantive Spring Break. APhiQ chapters compete
head to head with the NPHC (Black Social Greeks) chapters on their campus.
On a campus like North Carolina A&T University(HBCU) (similar elsewhere)
few of the things that differentiate Alpha Phi Omega from the social
greeks atNCState (for example) exist. Few NPHC greeks are housed, there is
a heavy service to the community aspect and there are few brothers who
will pledge both Alpha Phi omega and an NPHC.
3) "Stepping". As part of the direct competition, APhiQ chapters "step"
which is a a rhythmic synchronized spoken group routine. (I'll let JayBee
give a better definition of "stepping")
4. Alumni. Just as NPHC greeks tend to keep more of their alumni
interested than the NIC(General Frats) and NPC(General Sororities), it
also seems that the APhiQ chapters keep more of their alumni involved than
the APO chapters. This is all part of pledging Alpha Phi Omega for life.
There are other differences in culture, but these are some of the major
points. Most APO brothers don't have much experience with this culture.
There are active A Phi Q chapters in less than 10 of the 52 sections and
only 3 of the 10 regions. I'll go into this more in my next post.
YiLFS
Randy Finder
--
Leadership, Friendship and Service - Alpha Phi Omega
