Word: alpha
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...early October, 35 male Harvard students were initiated into Sigma Alpha Mu, a traditionally Jewish fraternity that disbanded at Harvard more than 50 years ago. About two weeks after the re-emergence of "Sammy," 17 more male undergraduates formed a provisional chapter of the Eta Sigma Chi fraternity. And two weeks ago, about 60 female students announced that they wanted to form a non-exclusive women's club...
...reason that at least two of these groups claim that they cannot accept members of the opposite sex is that the national organization will not allow it. Fraternities are traditionally all-male, explains Sigma Alpha Mu member Richard M. Geyser...
...betraying its own conscience and remaining exclusively male only so that it may keep its national charter, Sigma Alpha Mu faces the problem every new national fraternity attempting to start at Harvard must deal with: do the benefits of national recognition really outweigh the inability of local officers and members to dictate their own organizations...
...minority dilemna rests in the ability to find a balance between integration and segregation, and contrary to Cohn's generalized stigmatizations, members of Sigma Alpha Mu seem to have an appreciation for this balance...
Founders of fraternities must think carefully about starting organizations over which they do not have final say over all matters of operation, since they are bound by national guidelines. The members of Sigma Alpha Mu ran into this very problem. Although the majority of its members supported coed membership, the organization could not include women for fear of losing its national charter. It is precisely for this reason that the Harvard administration originally did away with recognition of national organizations...