[24611] in APO-L
Re: [APO-L] Extension & Characteristics of schools (RE: [APO-L] W elcome to al l charters & Recharters)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Finder, Randolph J Mr NGB-ARNG)
Tue Feb 1 13:10:57 2005
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 13:10:41 -0500
Reply-To: "Finder, Randolph J Mr NGB-ARNG" <Randolph.Finder@ngb.army.mil>
From: "Finder, Randolph J Mr NGB-ARNG" <Randolph.Finder@ngb.army.mil>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
>Randy et al.:
>Please do not be so biased towards schools that emphasise athletics.
>Don't forget not every school is in Division I. There are also several
>Division II and III schools and athletic conferences. While these
>schools do not compete at the same athletic level as Division I schools,
>many compete at a level at or above many Division I schools
>academically: Williams, Vassar, Grinnell, etc. Many also have very
>active APO chapters: St. Olaf, the University of Chicago, RPI, etc. We
>should not discount a school as a potential APO chapter because they do
>not give big money in athletic scholarships. Perhaps schools whose
>student bodies tend toward other pursuits might be more inclined to an
>APO chapter. Nor should we discount schools that are heavily fraternity
>and sorority. APO is a big deal on some campuses that are as much as
>75% fraternities. For example, Delta Omicron chapter here at Wabash
>College has had several pledge classes in the last few years with over
>50 members. That means the chapter pledged over 10% of the student body
>in a single year! The chapter just presented a check to Riley Childrens
>Hospital in Indianapolis for over $10,000, which they raised in the last
>six months or so. That is an amazing feat at any school, let alone a
>school of 850 men in the middle of the Indiana cornfields! I doubt few
>if any chapters at Division I schools can boast of comparable statistics.
I agree with some of the statements made here, my Alma Mater,
Carnegie-Mellon in Pittsburgh is Kappa Chapter and has been continually
active since chartering. Carnegie-Mellon is also Division III, having
deliberately de-emphasized athletics in the 1960s.
(Yes, I'm switching from Div I to Div I-A (in which football is the
determining factor) in my discussions, but that is more or less what I
intended at first)
I do not wish to denigrate those schools which have chosen not to emphasize
athletics, though for a school of 50,000 students, anything less than
Division I-A membership probably shows a deliberate de-emphasis of
athletics. (Florida International University is the largest school in I-AA I
can find at 35,000, but they are discussing a move to I-A).
However, a decision of an administration to have an athletic department at
Division I-A, almost certainly shows both a mindset of an administration
(from a standpoint of openness) *and* a campus environment (enrollment,
dormitories on campus,etc) in which Alpha Phi Omega may extend successfully
and once there, stay active.
In fact for the most competitive schools academically in the country, there
are two issues which can be negatives. One is that they tend to be smaller
than the primary state institutions which make up the backbone of Div I-A
and that the *some* administrations often express more control over types of
student organizations which may lead to problems in extension. There are
certainly schools at the most competitive level that welcome Alpha Phi Omega
such as those you mentioned and Stanford and MIT that welcome Alpha Phi
Omega.
Having social GLOs (especially National Social GLOs) makes a school *more*
likely to be a successful target, taken as a single data item, because it
indicates the following two things: 1) That the administration is willing to
have pleding Greek Letter Organization on campus and 2) That the campus is
large enough (with enough student life) to support them. If what I said
appeared to invert this, I should have made it more clear.
I congratulate Delta Omicron on its accomplishments! I'm posting the month
in Google News Articles tomorrow and the articles that talk about that will
be there.
*LOTS* of non Division I-A schools are wonderful extension targets and
*LOTS* have great active chapters!
If X is a division I-A school and someone has said
"We can't/shouldn't expand to school X", my response is
"Really?!? Why not?"
If X is not a division I-A school and some has said
"We can't/shouldn't expand to school X", my response is
"Oh. Why?"
There are *many* characteristics of a campus that affect how easy it will be
for Alpha Phi Omega to extend there, but the characteristics of the school
that is Division I-A, probably means that it has significant ones in our
favor. As such, I would expect them to all be listed among our potential
targets unless there specific overriding reasons against.
Randy
