[22534] in APO-L
Re: [APO-L] Research Results
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brown Michael-EMB021)
Tue Apr 23 10:10:09 2002
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Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 09:59:49 -0400
Reply-To: Brown Michael-EMB021 <Michael.R.Brown@MOTOROLA.COM>
From: Brown Michael-EMB021 <Michael.R.Brown@MOTOROLA.COM>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
JayBEE! wrote:
>Alpha Phi Omega begins in 1925 as a fraternity
>dedicated to supplemental manhood developement,
>using the principles of the Boy Scouts.
I think this is a misinterpretation of FRH's intention. "Manhood development" was never the sole intention of APO. It was to bring together college men into an organization based on the principles of scouting and dedicated to service. Having a standard of behaviour ("standard of manhood" as he called it) was part of the intention. Realize that the principles of scouting apply to both men AND women.
I wonder if anyone ever spoke with Frank about the possibilities of APO extending its membership to women. One has to wonder what his answer would have been.
>Then there was Title IX of 1974.
>This didn't directly affect Alpha Phi Omega
>because Alpha Phi Omega wasn't federally
>funded.
Sorry, but this is an incorrect assessment of Title IX and its affect of APO. Whether or not APO is federally funded is irrelavent. The federal funding of schools APO has chapters at is.
Title IX was intended to ensure that women had the same opportunities as men at federally funded schools (both public and private). Its main use has been to ensure equal opportunities in sports. (ie you got a men's volleyball team, you need to have a women's volleyball team, etc). However it also was applied to student clubs and organizations. Social fraternities/sororities were excluded, but NOT APO. The issue was that schools would demain that there APO chapter would have to go co-ed, or be shut down.
This is all explained in the current Pledge Manual, pg 10-11. (also available on-line at www.apo.org). I hope ALL Chapters are providing this manual to their pledges as part of the chapters' Pledge Books!
If you think that this won't have happened to APO chapters, let me give you an example of another group that Title IX did affect. The University of Miami has had since its founding a leadership honor society called Iron Arrow Honor Society. When it was founded it was all-male, and was called the highest honor a man could receive at UM. When Title IX came along, the organization was sued under Title IX to force it to go co-ed. The Board of Directors of UM told Iron Arrow that regardless of the outcome of the trial, if they did not go co-ed, they would be kicked off the campus (ie no longer an official university organization). Which is pretty sad when you realize the organization was chartered by the President's Office and founded by the first university presidents! They lost the court case, refused to go co-ed, and yes, where kicked off campus. They continued to exist, but as an unofficial organization. About ten years later the members did vote to go co-ed. At that!
p!
!
oint they were allowed to come back on campus and be an officially recognized organization. The same thing could have happened to many of our chapters. You can read about this at their site at www.ironarrow.com Here is a good article on them from the UM Magazine: http://www.miami.edu/miami-magazine/fall00/arrowheads.html
One of the reasons we still have all-male chapters on some campuses, is that the university officials at those schools allow it. If they decided they wanted those chapters to go co-ed or be shutdown, that's what would happened. Unfortunately a flipside issue is that many schools would like their now defunct chapters re-activated as all-male and they can't be.
Michael Brown
APO LM
ADT Alum/Advisor
longtime scouter
