[15534] in APO-L
Re: I am HOT!!!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ellen Kranzer)
Wed Nov 13 12:20:32 1996
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 11:35:13 -0500
Reply-To: Ellen Kranzer <ellen_kranzer@HARVARD.EDU>
From: Ellen Kranzer <ellen_kranzer@HARVARD.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
>I have not heard one complaint or concern on APO-L concerning anybody who
is currently
>on an all-male chapter's yard (campus) expressing dissent because they
ATTEMPTED to
>join APO and was turned down, nor have I heard any similar dissent from any
campus
>administration. What I have heard were these incredible mundane hypotheses and
>scenarios from non-chapter brothers speaking from an assumed perspective,
thus making
>the problem just what it is--as far as APO-L goes, IMAGINED. For an
injustice to
>happen, someone has to be wronged. Many of these injustice claims I am
hearing are
>from unsubstanciated sources. Remember, you gotta be there to see what's
really going
>on. That's what made me hot!!!
This argument is somewhat bogus since it's unlikely that a woman on a campus
with an all-male chapter who might be interested in APO would ever find this
list unless the person is a transfer brother. Afterall, why would you join
a discussion list about an organization that won't let you join.
(Especially since most women on campuses with all-male chapters don't know
that women can belong to Alpha Phi Omega, all they know is what's on their
campus.)
I certainly know of specific examples where female brothers transfered to
schools with an all-male chapter or moved on to grad school at a school with
an all-male chapter and were deeply disappointed at not being able to be an
active part of the chapter at their new school. Sometimes the female
brother was still made welcome and invited to participate in most or all of
the chapter's activities, other times it was made clear that they really
weren't wanted around. The women involved didn't complain except in private
because they recognized that under the existing rules the chapters involved
had the right to do what they wanted.
I also know of specific examples of women who heard about how great APO was
from high-school friends and where interested in joining, but found that the
school they went to had an all-male chapter so they couldn't. The fact that
they don't have the time to deal with trying to protest the situation,
doesn't mean that they weren't hurt by it. (I also know of one case where a
chapter wound up going co-ed because of this situation. When the brothers
looked at the situation, they realized that the woman involved would be a
great asset to their chapter and let her pledge.)
The fact that these people aren't speaking in this forum doesn't mean they
don't exist.
And all that being said, I might as well mention that while I'm disappointed
that there are still chapters that don't admit women, I don't want to seem
them forced to change. The situation on each campus is different. I expect
that, in time, all APO chapters will be co-ed, but I think that chapters are
stronger the motivation to go co-ed comes from within rather than without.
Y.I.S.
c.c.
Alum, AX
ellen_kranzer@harvard.edu
