National APIDA Panhellenic Association

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National APIDA Panhellenic Association
NAPA
Founded2005; 21 years ago (2005)
TypeUmbrella
AffiliationIndependent
StatusActive
EmphasisAsian, Pacific Islander, and Desi-American fraternities and sororities
ScopeNational
Slogan"The gold standard for APIDA fraternities and sororities"
Members20 organizations active
Headquarters9703 Camino Real
Frisco, Texas
United States
Websitewww.napahq.org

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.[1]

History

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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.[2]

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:[3][4]

  • alpha Kappa Delta Phi
  • Alpha Phi Gamma
  • Delta Phi Lambda
  • Delta Kappa Delta
  • Kappa Phi Lambda
  • Pi Alpha Phi
  • Pi Delta Psi
  • Sigma Beta Rho
  • Sigma Psi Zeta

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.[5] The organizations at the time were:

Pi Alpha Phi's membership was withdrawn in October 2023 when the fraternity closed its collegiate chapters.[6]

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.[7]

Membership requirements

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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.[8]

Member organizations

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The alphabetical list of NAPA member fraternities and sororities.[9][10]

Former members of National APIDA or its predecessors

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ National APIDA Panhellenic Association Archives – Student Life and Culture Archives – U of I Library, accessed 12 Jun 2021.
  2. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  3. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  4. ^ Founding and organizational information from the NAPA website, accessed 12 Jun 2021.
  5. ^ Noted in a 2016 press release, accessed 12 Jun 2012.
  6. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  7. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  8. ^ Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors - Essentials E-Magazine September 2019
  9. ^ From the NAPA website, list of organizations, accessed 12 Jun 2021.
  10. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)..
  11. ^ alpha Kappa Delta Phi prefers that the leading "alpha" in their name not be capitalized.
  12. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).