Alpha Psi Lambda

Alpha Psi Lambda
ΑΨΛ
Founded	February 11, 1985; 39 years ago (February 11, 1985) Ohio State University
Type	Social
Affiliation	NALFO
Status	Active
Emphasis	Latino
Scope	National
Motto	Together We Shall Seek the Noblest
Colors	Gold and   White
Symbol	Palm Tree
Flower	Gold Rose
Mascot	Jaguar
Chapters	45
Colonies	9
Members	4,000 lifetime
Headquarters	PO Box 804835 Chicago, Illinois 60680 United States
Website	www.alphapsilambda.net

Alpha Psi Lambda National, Inc. (ΑΨΛ) is a co-educational, Latino-oriented fraternity which began in 1985 at Ohio State University. It is the first co-ed fraternity for Latino college students in the United States.^[1][2] Today the Fraternity has more than 4,000 members, with 41 collegiate chapters and 8 Affiliate chapters; Its National headquarters is in Chicago, Illinois.

History

Alpha Psi Lambda was founded in May 1984, when Josue Cruz, an assistant vice provost for the Office of Minority Affairs at Ohio State University, aided a group of students in researching existing Greek Letter Organizations with the idea of forming a Latino-affinity group. Rather than join an existing group, the students decided to establish a new on-campus organization, co-educational in nature and with a Latino affinity.^[3][4] The thirteen founding members were as follows:^[4]

• Diana Acevedo
• Juan Casimiro
• Carolyn Christian
• James Cordero
• Tammy Harris
• Clara Isern
• Marisol Lugo
• Yolanda Natal
• Saddy Rivera
• Nancy Romo
• Annette Saldivar
• Annette Seda
• Juan Vera

Its founding date is celebrated as February 11, 1985, but it can trace steps made towards its formation to the year prior.^[4] At its founding, the fraternity identified its mission as "To promote continued personal and collective growth of our membership, success, and unity through education, leadership, cultural awareness, and community service."^[5]

By 1991, it had emerged out of the Midwest region with the establishment of a chapter at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.^[3] In 1998, the fraternity became a founding member of NALFO, a trade association of Latino fraternities and sororities, and remains a member today.^[6] Growth continued and 49 chapters have been established as of 2022.^[3]

Its national headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois.

Symbols

The motto of Alpha Psi Lambda is "Together We Shall Seek the Noblest". Its colors are gold and white. Its symbol is the palm tree and its flower is the gold rose. Its mascot is the jaguar.

Chapters

Alpha Psi Lambda chapters note a "Founding Line" to recognize the initial class of chapter founders.^[7] Collegiate chapters have been formed at the following schools. Active chapters are indicated in bold and inactive chapters are indicated in italic.

Chapter	Charter date and range	Founding line	Institution	Location	Status	Reference
Alpha	1985	Los Primeros	Ohio State University	Columbus, Ohio	Active	[3]
Beta	1988	La Familia	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	Champaign, Illinois	Active	[3]
Gamma	1989	Los Dedicados	Northern Illinois University	DeKalb, Illinois	Active	[3]
Delta	1991–20xx ?	Los Originadores	Southern Methodist University	Dallas, Texas	Inactive	[3][7]
Epsilon	1991	Los Predestinados	Purdue University Northwest	Hammond, Indiana	Active	[3]
Zeta	1993	Los Invincibles	University of Illinois Chicago	Chicago, Illinois	Active	[3]
Eta	1996	Los Fieles	Ohio University	Athens, Ohio	Active	[3]
Theta	1996–20xx ?, 20xx ?	Los Caballeros	University of Cincinnati	Cincinnati, Ohio	Active	[3][7]
Iota	1996	Los Prestigiosos	DePaul University	Chicago, Illinois	Active	[3]
Kappa	1997–20xx ?, 20xx?	Los Iluminados	Kent State University	Kent, Ohio	Active	[3][7]
Lambda	1998	Aztlán	Illinois State University	Normal, Illinois	Active	[3]
Mu	1999–20xx ?,	Los Sobresalientes	University of Houston	Houston, Texas	Inactive	[3][7]
Nu	2001	Los Esperados	University of Toledo	Toledo, Ohio	Active	[3]
Xi	2001	Los Inmortales	Loyola University Chicago	Chicago, Illinois	Active	[3]
Omicron	2003	Los Iniciadores	Texas A&M International University	Laredo, TX	Active	[3]
Pi	2003–20xx ?	Fuerza	Texas State University	San Marcos, Texas	Inactive	[3][7]
Rho	2005	La Lucha	Northeastern Illinois University	Chicago, Illinois	Active	[3]
Sigma	2005–20xx ?	El Encendimiento	University of Texas at Austin	Austin, Texas	Inactive	[3][7]
Tau	2006–20xx ?	El Año De Las Luces	Texas Tech University	Lubbock, Texas	Inactive	[3][7]
Upsilon	2006	Los Deseados	Florida Atlantic University	Boca Raton, Florida	Active	[3]
Phi	2009–20xx ?	La Devoción	Prairie View A&M University	Prairie View, Texas	Inactive	[3][7]
Chi	2012–20xx ?	Dominación	Lewis University	Romeoville, Illinois	Inactive	[3][7]
Psi	2013	Los Caciques	Northern Kentucky University	Highland Heights, Kentucky	Active	[3]
Omega					Memorial	[8]
Alpha Alpha	2013–20xx ?	Patria	Coastal Carolina University	Conway, South Carolina	Inactive	[3][7]
Alpha Beta	2013	La Frontera	University of Texas Rio Grande Valley	Brownsville, Texas and Edinburg, Texas	Active	[3]
Alpha Gamma	2014	Divergencia	California State University, Sacramento	Sacramento, California	Active	[3]
Alpha Delta	2014	La Dinastia	Southern Illinois University Edwardsville	Edwardsville, Illinois	Active	[3]
Alpha Epsilon	2015	La Tormenta	University of Michigan–Dearborn	Dearborn, Michigan	Active	[3]
Alpha Zeta	2015	El Cuartelejo	Colorado State University Pueblo	Pueblo, Colorado	Active	[3]
Alpha Eta	2016	Los Aliados	Eastern Illinois University	Charleston, Illinois	Active	[3]
Alpha Theta	2016	Espíritus Resilientes	University of North Carolina Wilmington	Wilmington, North Carolina	Active	[3]
Alpha Iota	2016	La Fundación	Western Illinois University	Macomb, Illinois	Active	[3]
Alpha Kappa	2017	El Reino	University of St. Francis	Joliet, Illinois	Active	[3]
Alpha Lambda	2018–20xx ?	Los Chiquillos	Washington State University	Pullman, Washington	Inactive	[3][7][a]
Alpha Mu	2018	Los Profundos	Washington University in St. Louis	St. Louis, Missouri	Active	[3][a]
Alpha Nu	2018	Los Innovadores	University of Dayton	Dayton, Ohio	Active	[3]
Alpha Xi	2017	DAUNTLESS	University of Lynchburg	Lynchburg, Virginia	Active	[3]
Alpha Omicron	2018	La Oportunidad	Lindenwood University	St. Charles, Missouri	Active	[3]
Alpha Pi	2019	Tauro	Bradley University	Peoria, Illinois	Active	[3]
Alpha Rho	2020	Deus Ex Machina	California State University, Fullerton	Fullerton, California	Active	[3]
Alpha Sigma	2021	Legado Lamat	Miami University	Oxford, Ohio	Active	[3]
Sewanee Affiliate	2019	Dinámicos	Sewanee: The University of the South	Sewanee, Tennessee	Active	[3][7]
Illinois Wesleyan Affiliate	2020	La Recíedumbre	Illinois Wesleyan University	Bloomington, Illinois	Active	[3][7]
Nicholls State Affiliate	2021	R.E.I.G.N. 5	Nicholls State University	Thibodaux, LA	Active	[3][7]
Vanderbilt Affiliate	2022	Los Luminosos	Vanderbilt University	Nashville, Tennessee	Active	[3][7]
UH Downtown Affiliate	2022	Intensidad	University of Houston–Downtown	Houston, Texas	Active	[3][7]
CU Denver Affiliate	2022	La Simetría	University of Colorado Denver	Denver, Colorado	Active	[3][7]
University of Richmond Affiliate	2024	Abnegación	University of Richmond	Richmond, Virginia	Active	[3][7]

1. Founded as an affiliate colony in 2006.

Alumni clubs

Club	Charter date and range	Chapter affiliation	Location	Status	Reference
Rho Alumni Club	2015	Rho chapter	Chicago, Illinois	Active	[9]
Iota Alumni Club	2018	Iota chapter	Chicago, Illinois	Active	[9]
Alpha Epsilon Alumni Club		Alpha Epsilon chapter	Dearborn, Michigan	Active	[9]
Lambda Alumni Club	2020	Lambda chapter	Normal, Illinois	Active	[9]
Texas Alumni Club	2021	Delta, Mu, Omicron, Pi, Sigma, Tau, Phi, and Alpha Beta chapters	Texas	Active	[9]
Upsilon Alumni Club	2021	Upsilon chapter	Boca Raton, Florida	Active	[9]
Alpha Kappa Alumni Club	2022	Alpha Kappa chapter	Joliet, Illinois	Active	[9]

See also

• List of social fraternities
• Cultural interest fraternities and sororities

References

1. Torbenson, Craig LaRon; Parks, Gregory (2009). Brothers and Sisters: Diversity in College Fraternities and Sororities. Associated University Presse. ISBN 978-0-8386-4194-1.
2. "First Hispanic Fraternity Proposed". Portsmouth Daily Times. January 12, 1985. Retrieved April 21, 2011.
3. William Raimond Baird; Carroll Lurding (eds.). "Almanac of Fraternities and Sororities (Baird's Manual Online Archive), page showing active co-ed groups". Student Life and Culture Archives. University of Illinois: University of Illinois Archives. Retrieved 4 July 2021. The main archive URL is The Baird's Manual Online Archive homepage.
4. "Alpha Psi Lambda History - APL-Rho". sites.google.com. Retrieved 2023-01-15.
5. "Mission & Purposes". www.alphapsilambda.net. Retrieved 2023-01-15.
6. "NALFO History – National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations". nalfo.org. Retrieved 2023-01-15.
7. "Chapters". www.alphapsilambda.net. Retrieved 2023-01-15.
8. "Omega Chapter". www.alphapsilambda.net. Retrieved 2023-01-15.
9. "Alumni Clubs". www.alphapsilambda.net. Retrieved 2023-01-15.