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Alpha Phi Omega (APO, or ΑΦΩ or A-Phi-O) is a co-ed service fraternity organized to provide community service, leadership and social opportunities to college students. The fraternity exists in the United States and the Philippines. Unlike other fraternities, APO's primary purpose is to provide volunteer service within four areas: service to the community, service to the campus, service to the fraternity, and service to the nation as participating citizens. Being primarily a service organization, the fraternity restricts its chapters from maintaining fraternity houses to serve as residences for their members.
Alpha Phi Omega claims to be the largest fraternity. In the U.S., the fraternity has chapters at 350 colleges, a current active membership of approximately 17,000 and has over 300,000 alumni. Chapters range in size from just a handful of active members at some small colleges to over a hundred active members at larger institutions.
It was founded on December 16, 1925 at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania by Frank Reed Horton and a group of former Boy Scouts as a way to continue participating in the ideals of Scouting at the college level. The founders insisted that all those gaining membership must pledge to uphold the fraternity's three cardinal principles of Leadership, Friendship, and Service. The fraternity was opened to women in 1976. All members are called "Brothers".
Typical fraternity projects include blood drives, tutoring, charity fundraising events, Scouting events, and housing construction/rehabilitation. Much of the operations of individual chapters is left to their own discretion, though most chapters have membership requirements which require a certain number of hours of service each semester. Some chapters of APO claim to complete over 5,000 hours of community service in an academic year.
Before women were allowed to join APO a sorority, parallel in ideals but independent in structure, was formed for women who had been Camp Fire Girls or Girl Scouts: Omega Phi Alpha.
All Male Chapters vs. Co-ed Chapters
At the Alpha Phi Omega 1976 National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, the decision was made to formally welcome females as brothers of the fraternity. Although this had been happening at some chapters on an unofficial basis for a number of years, this constituted the first formal recognition from on the national level. As with many major changes, this one caused a great deal of concern, especially among older, established chapters.
In order to preserve the unity of the fraternity as a whole, a "gentleman's agreement" was crafted over the years following the 1976 National Convention that, informally, allows chapters that were all-male prior to the 1976 National Convention to remain all-male as long as their current charters remain in effect and they don't go inactive.
The chapters that are currently all-male are:
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Famous Brothers
- Tim Allen (Gamma Phi), Actor and comedian
- H. Roe Bartle , mayor of Kansas City and namesake of the Kansas City Chiefs
- Bill Clinton (Mu Alpha), U.S. President
- Tom Daschle (Mu Sigma), U.S. Senator
- Mike Garrett (Alpha Kappa), 1966 Heisman Trophy winner
- James Lovell (Beta Theta), Apollo 13 astronaut
- Togo D. West, Jr., Secretary of Veteran's Affairs under Clinton