[17927] in APO-L
Re: Women
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John R Hall)
Fri Dec 12 13:25:52 1997
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 13:23:47 -0500
Reply-To: Jrhmdtraum@AOL.COM
From: John R Hall <Jrhmdtraum@AOL.COM>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
Jim,
I appreciate your input.
Actually, the APO policies are fairly explicit (though obviously not enough)
3.2: "...active membership is OPEN TO ALL STUDENTS AND SHOULD REPRESENT A
CROSS SECTION OF THE STUDENT BODY. Chapters have the right to determine
their own membership..."
3.3: "Chapter membership requirements may be adopted that ARE NOT IN
CONFLICT with state and local law, the National Bylaws and Standard Chapter
Articles of Association of Alpha Phi Omega, or the rules and regulations of
the school which the chapter is located..."
According to my discussions with National staff, no new fraternity has
petitioned successfully that has had an all male requirement and their are
now only several left that are all male. Unfortunately, they are very vocal.
It was the "sense" of the convention that the all male chapters would change
with the times and I was astounded recently (and ashamed) that these few have
held out.
Earle Herbert was our sectional chair/advisor in the 70s when Zeta started
the national push for coed. When I was president of Zeta in '72 and '73
(several years after the initiation of the coed push), we initiated a woman
(B. Hesselmyer) into the chapter and national. We were prepared to sue the
National (with Stanford Law School faculty as counsel) if she was denied. As
you may remember, the National had a sizable defense fund set aside for this
which was made moot by the convention.
Earle told us that in the 60's there were several chapters in the South which
had only WHITE male members which the national "corrected". Then as now, I
see no difference in racial vs sexual discrimination and am not sure how you
or anyone else can tolerate it.
It is unfortunate that the Constitutional Admendment on Equal Rights failed.
However, one of the reasons it failed is that people felt that present law
covers it. I happen to agree (both in the 70s and now).
John
