The Pursuit of Nappieness

In the face of our seventy-fifth anniversary, your editor has been searching for thoughts worthy of this remarkable organization and the equally remarkable people who have been its members since 1921. I have been greatly humbled by the task. Capturing the essence of what is Nu Alpha Phi can be daunting; what is the collective element within us, the elusive yet undimmed spark that has lit the imagination over the years? What is the essence that defines us?

Seventy-five years ago, a small group of Pomona College men - misfits in the eyes of the other fraternities that had passed them over - founded an organization that provided their off-beat qualities a home and hailed their non-conformity as a virtue. Because of those men and the association they established, Nu Alpha Phi Fraternity, you are reading these words now.

There are two things at the heart of that difficult to define quality called "Nappieness," and surprisingly neither one is mysterious in itself. The first element is almost so obvious it escapes notice, but it is the secret source of our enduring strength. Our very heterogeneity brought us and binds us together. The founders of Nu Alpha Phi were odd-men-out who didn't fit the prescribed fraternity profile in 1921. It followed thereafter that pledges' very individuality - not their ability to fit in - rendered them unsuited for all fraternities save one. It is, in fact, that heterogeneity that keeps us together still. Because we were never all alike, we do not drift apart as we grow and change.

Long before the word "diversity" gained vogue and controversy, Nappies were busy choosing members based on their standing as individuals. We selected our members without regard for skin color; and, finally, without regard for gender. Though many early alums - founders included - may have howled in protest when actives first admitted women in 1977, others among them recognized the event as the inevitable result of the principles on which the fraternity had been founded. Nu Alpha Phi's charge to "Consider All True Friends Brothers" could no longer be honored without admitting our Sisters.

It is a source of great pride to many that Nu Alpha Phi proactively eliminated this final barrier to membership a decade or so before society at large sought to dismantle all-male associations. It was a vital act that imbued the fraternity with continued relevance to the student body, preserving a continuing flow of first-rate pledges. During the late '80s and early '90s when Pomona College first began struggling with the existence and meaning of fraternities, Nu Alpha Phi (and, to be fair, KOE and Zeta Chi Sigma, the other mixed-gender fraternities) may have contributed to administrative restraint because no sweeping, generalized, negative statements about all fraternities could accurately and honestly be made.

The other great contributing factor to the identity of Nu Alpha Phi is its close association with Pomona College, which has nurtured and sustained the vision of the fraternity throughout the years. The fraternity is inconceivable anywhere but Pomona, and as many Nu Alphs like to believe, the college would be the poorer for the lack of it. James Blaisdell (surely one of Pomona's most visionary presidents) established the non-national fraternity policy. He did so shortly after assuming the presidency in 1909 partly in response to the chartering of Phi Delta with the aim of associating with the national organization. Because of his experiences with nationally chartered fraternities' divisiveness while president of Maine's Bowdoin College, he ruled - fully aware his decision would have far-reaching effects on Pomona's nascent social life - that Pomona would henceforth only allow the chartering of non-national fraternities. Blaisdell reasoned that because their allegiance would be to the local school and not a remote national organization, Pomona's fraternities would serve to strengthen the character of the College itself.

By 1921, despite the fact that men lived largely off-campus and a specific place for them had yet to be built, the tone of Pomona's open, residential social life had been established. Kappa Delta, Sigma Tau, and Phi Delta had been created earlier, outside of this atmosphere, and had developed a different character. NAP and the long-extinct Sigma Phi Alpha, however, were founded under Blaisdell's premise. Under those terms NAP was really more of a friendly local club than the national fraternities that all-too-frequently emphasized wealth and social standing. As Chuck Shelton once wisely noted, only those who had seen this difference could truly appreciate the superiority of the Pomona system.

Is it possible that over the years Nu Alphs have represented the best realization of the local, college-focused fraternity? The Board of Trustees is, and has long been, well-stocked with Nappies. Nu Alpha Phi's Memorial Scholarship Fund is the only fraternity-based source of grants (and the only fund for which one can specifically earmark contributions). Three of the last four recipients of the Alumni Distinguished Service award have been Nu Alphs. The Oak Leaf celebrates 66 years of continuous publication, an event without comparison even among Pomona's other, older fraternities. The current Actives are the largest, most involved group of any kind on campus. The spirit of diversity, involvement, and friendliness that marked Pomona's founding continues to animate Nu Alpha Phi, imbued with that vision seventy-five years ago.

These are just two of many possible factors that comprise the identity of Nu Alpha Phi. In the coming editions of the Oak Leaf (yes, there will be more than one this year) in this, its diamond-anniversary year, we will examine the events, traditions, and people who have contributed to three-quarters of a century of our history. Please write to the Oak Leaf with your own ideas about what makes us - despite age, race, creed, or gender, in all of our glorious dissimilarity - remarkably Nu Alpha Phi.

- Chris Hall '82 #870