Gentleman's Agreement

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When Alpha Phi Omega went fully co-ed at the 1976 National Convention. In order to prevent a schism within the fraternity, the Gentleman's Agreement was formed. The deal was that any active chapter that was cuttenly all-male, may remain that way as long as the chapter is currently active.

However, a co-ed chapter could not go back to being all male. Also, as decided by the National Board in 1986, once a chapter went inactive it would have to be co-ed whenever it reactivated. This wasn't usually a problem since during reactivations, the original brothers have long since moved on to other things.

Some of the all male chapters are called Viking Chapters, but the use of the Viking as a symbol is only used by all-male chapters following the traditions of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Every national convention someone tries to negate the Gentleman's Argeement. It generally fails, but not without some rather spectacular arguments during the Legislative Session. While those in favor of abolishing it varies from convention to convention. The most vocal defendant of the agreement is Delta Chapter, sometimes to their own detriment.

However, the Argeement is still in effect, mostly because it doesn't really affect the vast majority of chapters, and there are no gains for them if it passes, so it the status quo remains. There have been hypothetical situations where a female brother transfers to a school with a Viking Chapter and tries to join in as a full and equal member, but it hasn't happened yet, and at that point it may not be resolved without a lengthy and expensive court case which would probably kill it.

Trivia: Many - but not all - Viking chapters are at HBCU's, or Historically Black Colleges and Universities. As such, they take on traits and symbols common to other Fraternities and Sororities at HBCU's, including calls, handsigns, symbols and step dancing. However as the chapter at Austin Peay State University has gone inactive, it appears that all of the remaining chapters using the Viking terminology are at HBCUs.