Alpha Psi Lambda National, Inc. () is a

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

, Latino-oriented

fraternity A fraternity (; whence, "wikt:brotherhood, brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club (organization), club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular ...

which began in 1985 at Ohio State University. It is the first co-ed fraternity for Latino college students in the United States. Today the Fraternity has more than 4,000 members, with 41 collegiate chapters and 8 Affiliate chapters; Its National headquarters is in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

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 The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

, aided a group of students in researching existing Greek Letter Organizations with the idea of forming a Latino-

affinity group An affinity group is a group formed around a shared interest or common goal, to which individuals formally or informally belong. Affinity groups are generally precluded from being under the aegis of any governmental agency, and their purposes ...

. 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. The main archive URL i
The Baird's Manual Online Archive homepage
The thirteen founding members were as follows: Its founding date is celebrated as , but it can trace steps made towards its formation to the year prior. 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." By 1991, it had emerged out of the Midwest region with the establishment of a chapter at

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

in Dallas, Texas. In 1998, the fraternity became a founding member of NALFO, a trade association of Latino fraternities and sororities, and remains a member today. Growth continued and 49 chapters have been established as of 2022. 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. Collegiate chapters have been formed at the following schools. Active chapters are indicated in bold and inactive chapters are indicated in ''italic''.

Alumni clubs

References

{{National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations Student societies in the United States Hispanic and Latino American organizations Fraternal service organizations based in Chicago Latino fraternities and sororities Student organizations established in 1985 1985 establishments in Ohio

History

Symbols

Chapters

Alumni clubs

See also

References