[15312] in APO-L
I've changed my view. Oh...and pigs can fly.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Loren J Chassels)
Thu Nov 7 03:49:51 1996
Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 22:43:59 PST
Reply-To: Loren J Chassels <asven@JUNO.COM>
From: Loren J Chassels <asven@JUNO.COM>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
>I wonder how long the all male chapters would exist if we were to
>grant
>alternate charters to all female or coed groups at those schools.
Gamma Sigma Sigma (Girls Service Sorority): Founded at Drexel University
by an all male Alpha Phi Omega chapter--Zeta Theta. The organization was intended to be a counterpart on equal footing with Alpha Phi Omega. I
believe the system is working quite well to this day.
>I'm not going to debate whether we would have lasted as long if we
>were
>still all male. But I want to thank Lee and the others who have shown
>that it is time to stop openly violating our national by-laws and have
>all chapters become co-ed. The all-male chapters are in direct
>violation
>of the national by-laws that say we are open to any student on campus,
>the
>agreement in '76 has lasted 20 years and it's time to end it.
Same logic the US has used to renig on almost every single treaty it has signed with Native Americans and Native Alaskans.
I've come to the recent decision that maybe we should have two different
titles for Brothers in APO. For 5 years I have argued the opposite.
I used to think that we always called our female members, brothers. I
found out that was incorrect. We used to call them "little sisters,"
"sisters," "associate members," etc. Many of the titles were not
necessarily approved by national. The important thing to realize is
that these titles were intended to explain a SUBORDINATE membership class. In other words, female members called sisters had less membership
priviledges than males "brothers."
As I understand it, the female members fought to gain recognition as
EQUAL members of this fraternity. In order to ensure equal status, they
chose to carry an equal title. Since the title "Brother" was the term
for full membership status, that was the title they saught.
I believe we can properly add a second title of "Sister" to the
membership without creating a subordinate membership class.
My other argument was that of tradition. Our fraternity has the tradition of calling our brothers, "Brothers" in our songs, rituals, etc. I am
strongly opposed to changing traditions for the sake of political correctness, which is what every argument, ranging from the recruitment benefit
to the "its only fair" theory, boils down to.
I no longer have a problem with calling the female members sisters, IF
such a change should take place on the NATIONAL level. However, I hope
our traditions are not thrown into the Political Correction pool for
everyone to dilute with their own whims.
Sven
