Just thinking about how notoriously fiscally inept many of our Black organizations have become and how they’ve strayed so far from their original purpose and mission. Not just the Black Lives Matter organization but civil rights organizations, churches, Divine 9 and other non for profit organizations continue to mismanage the people’s money as well as the agenda of helping our people. Let’s get our fiscal and organizational houses in order! We have messy leaders of these organizations who bring their personal fiscal ineptness into the organization and economically destroy their credibility and the ability to secure resources and provide community services by continually mismanaging the people’s money. Unfortunately, the Black church has become the blueprint for this dysfunctional organizational management behavior in our organizations and in our leadership.

So, I’m starting the “BRING Kappa Alpha Psi BACK HOME to INDIANA Campaign” as a call to arms to not only my organization but to encourage all Black organizations and institutions to live up to their true meaning, mission and purpose because our communities need them more now than ever!

To the BLACK COLLECTIVE, I introduce the,

“BRING Kappa Alpha Psi BACK HOME to INDIANA Campaign”

BOTH figuratively and ideologically to foster financial accountability and to better provide superior service to the community and its membership throughout the country.

Why?

To repair the “BOND” and BRAND. The BRAND is the shared believed purpose, mission, organizational culture and structure that binds the members together as one body and one aim. While the “BOND” of a fraternity identifies the organization and members by their “GLUE that BINDS them” via their characteristics, accomplishments, goals, community service, perceived group attributes and perceived group identity/personality. The BOND use to represent an organization of strong masculine, good looking attractive intelligent Black men who had their personal lives and financial interests/assets in order. Not so much anymore after years of mismanaging the BRAND, BOND and the organization’s finances.

– Despite being Headquartered in Philadelphia, Kappa Alpha Psi is a Midwest culture organization founded on Black Indiana Midwestern values that seems to have lost its way both financially, brand wise and integrity wise. We need to BRING the FRATERNITY back home to the MIDWEST (Indianapolis or Bloomington IN.) to restore its BRAND, BOND, values, purpose, mission, prestige and prominence!

– There’s a strong feeling by many disenfranchised disengaged Kappa brothers throughout the country that the organization was hijacked many decades ago by an element of members who don’t resemble the walk, talk or live the true meaning of the KAPPA BRAND, and that the BRAND has suffered self inflicted financial and organizational damage for years! These brothers need to be repatriated into the BOND after years of neglect, rejection and indifference towards those wanting transparency, authentic mission and purpose, authentic manliness fidelity and fiscal responsibility.

– Kappa Alpha Psi Management has a financial and fiscal responsibility to manage its assets and its BRAND to be aligned with true manliness fidelity, and financial and membership growth. And they have a responsibility to remove those from office who signed off on financial expenditures or were negligent during the misappropriation finances that’s currently under investigation.

The L’s are Piling Up….

– Historical loss of Alpha and Beta Chapter houses in 2004-2005 as they were sold due to financial mismanagement and without transparency. In 2004, I was told by HQ that Kappa wasn’t about a HOUSE and there was nothing further that they would consider.

– From 1985 to 2018, 3 million dollars was stolen by former Financial Director, Curtis Anderson, former IU Bloomington Polemarch of Alpha Chapter 1983-1985, due to lack of financial system checks and balances, oversight, and poor financial management.

– There’s an institutional and member indifference specifically towards Alpha Chapter by Philadelphia and other brothers around the country that it’s just another chapter with no respected historical value or significance. It’s a striking resemblance to how African descendants throughout the diaspora treat their birthplace of Africa with indifference, shame and disrespect.

The path forward is to either write off as a LOSS a significant number of OLD SCHOOL brothers/ former members/consumers(who essentially have been the BOND and BRAND over the past 40 years) and continue to double down on the past strategy of trying to fiscally grow the membership and brand with new members or to of repair and restore the relationship with these displaced OLD SCHOOL brothers who feel the organization has lost its way fiscally, brand wise and reputation wise.

*The ALPHA CHAPTER SIGNIFICANCE*

The historical significance of our founding in 1911 was that it provided protection, socialization, identity, structure, educational resources, and ultimately was instrumental in the founders persisting to graduation during a time period of Jim Crow, lynching and significant Klan activity. Additionally,

we were assisted by the late Former IU President Herman B. Wells who was instrumental in our house becoming the first Black fraternity on frat row from the 1960’s until its sale in 2005 and Wells involvement helped our fraternity’s continued growth at the IU Bloomington IN campus.

When I graduated in 1989, we had over 200 Kappa Alpha Psi members at Indiana University Bloomington IN and 5 years later in 1994 there were only about (5) members left on campus.

My two oldest daughters attended Indiana University Bloomington Bloomington from 2015-2021… and during their attendance there were more minorities in 1984-1989 when I first attended 37 years ago.

On May 2021–the last (3) Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity members graduated from Indiana university Bloomington in May 8-9 leaving no Kappas on campus for the first time in our 110-year organization’s history.

*SOLUTION*

On May 6, 2021 an email was sent by Dr. Michael K. Blanchard requesting a meeting with new Indiana University Bloomington President Pamela Whitten about the IU Groups Program and other possible wraparound service programs to increase the percentage of African American and other minority students who can persist to graduation and pledge Divine 9 Black organizations.

This is about more than just Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. It’s about college campus diversity, BLACK organizational and institutional mismanagement, along with Black student enrollment, retention and persistence, and the unintended consequences due to the lack of educational opportunities and priorities of predominantly white universities.

Respectfully Submitted,

Dr. Michael K. Blanchard

Alpha Chapter 1985