The National APIDA Panhellenic Association (NAPA) is an umbrella council for twenty Asian, Pacific Islander, and Desi American fraternities and sororities (Greek Letter organizations) in universities in the United States.National APIDA Panhellenic Association Archives – Student Life and Culture Archives – U of I Library, accessed 12 Jun 2021.
History In the summer of 2004, nine fraternal organizations that served Asian and Pacific Islander students at US schools came together to form what was then called the APIA Greek Alliance (AGA), a partnership with APIA Vote aimed at registering voters in advance of the 2004 United States elections. These nine organizations were alpha Kappa Delta Phi, Alpha Iota Omicron, Delta Phi Lambda, Lambda Phi Epsilon, Kappa Phi Lambda, Nu Alpha Phi, Pi Alpha Phi, Pi Delta Psi, and Sigma Psi Zeta.
The success of this partnership led to additional collaboration. The AGA hosted the first-ever leadership summit in the summer of 2005 with support from OCA - Asian Pacific American Advocates. By the end of this summit, the fraternities and sororities present formed the North American Greek Council (NAGC) which comprised seven organizations: alpha Kappa Delta Phi, Alpha Phi Gamma, Delta Phi Lambda, Pi Alpha Phi, Pi Delta Psi, Sigma Beta Rho, and Sigma Psi Zeta.
In 2006, the NAGC formalized its constitution and renamed itself to the National APIA Panhellenic Association or the National Asian Pacific Islander American Panhellenic Association (NAPA) and recognized the following nine organizations as charter members:Founding and organizational information from the NAPA website, accessed 12 Jun 2021.
In 2017, the member organizations unanimously voted to add Desi to its formal name, a word describing people from the Indian subcontinent or South Asia, and in doing so adopted the acronym APIDA, to explicitly reflect their service of groups with South Asian membership. NAPA remains the preferred abbreviation.Noted in a 2016 press release, accessed 12 Jun 2012. The organizations at the time were:
Pi Alpha Phi's membership was withdrawn in October 2023 when the fraternity closed its collegiate chapters.
NAPA has worked with peer organizations like NALFO, NMGC, NIC, NPC and NPHC on legislative issues. For example, in 2018 they successfully opposed legislation that would ban Greek life across all colleges and universities in Tennessee.
Membership requirements APIDA requires that its members (organizations) meet Fraternal Information and Programming Group (FIPG) guidelines in Risk management, hazing, and liability insurance. The decision to do so was made in 2006 with then-current groups allowed two years to meet these requirements.Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors - Essentials E-Magazine September 2019
Member organizations The alphabetical list of NAPA member fraternities and sororities.From the NAPA website, list of organizations, accessed 12 Jun 2021. Most NAPA fraternities and sororities are listed
Organization Symbols Type Date founded Founding location Chapters alpha Kappa Delta Phi Sorority University of California, Berkeley 63 alpha Kappa Delta Phi prefers that the leading "alpha" in their name not be capitalized. Alpha Phi Gamma Sorority California State Polytechnic University, Pomona 16 Alpha Sigma Rho Sorority University of Georgia 10 Chi Sigma Tau Fraternity University of Illinois at Chicago 9 Delta Epsilon Psi Fraternity University of Texas at Austin 35 Delta Kappa Delta Sorority Texas A&M University 15 Delta Phi Lambda Sorority University of Georgia 24 Delta Phi Omega Sorority University of Houston 49 Delta Sigma Iota Fraternity Pennsylvania State University 8 Iota Nu Delta Fraternity Binghamton University 30 Kappa Phi Gamma Sorority University of Texas at Austin 19 Kappa Phi Lambda Sorority Binghamton University 37 Kappa Pi Beta Fraternity Northern Illinois University 5 Lambda Phi Epsilon Fraternity University of California, Los Angeles 70 Pi Delta Psi Fraternity Binghamton University 31 Sigma Beta Rho Fraternity University of Pennsylvania 57 Sigma Psi Zeta Sorority University at Albany 39 Sigma Sigma Rho Sorority St. John's University 26
Former members of National APIDA or its predecessors
Organization Symbols Type Date founded Founding location Chapters Alpha Iota Omicron Fraternity University of Michigan 6 Beta Chi Theta Fraternity University of California, Los Angeles 29 Nu Alpha Phi Fraternity State University of New York at Albany 9 Pi Alpha Phi Fraternity University of California, Berkeley 28
See also List of social sororities and women's fraternities Cultural interest fraternities and sororities Racism in Greek life
External links Official website
References