I am a college freshman and I want to start a sorority at my school..
 

I go to a small university in Maine, and i am really interested in starting a sorority at my school. My school doesnt and has never had sororities or fraternities here. I have a few questions I was hoping someone could answer..

what is the national affiliation i've been reading about?
and what do they Greek letters/names ACTUALLY mean to the sorority/fraternity?
what are some ideas of basis for a sorority? (ex: reasons for starting it)

Any help would be great! thanks.

what is the national affiliation i've been reading about? -
national affiliation means a chapter of a sorority is part of a national organization and not a "local" or "regional". "Local" meaning it is the only chapter of that sorority, "regional" meaning there are two or more chapters in a geographic area.

"National" implies there are chapters across the U.S.
and what do they Greek letters/names ACTUALLY mean to the sorority/fraternity?

Most meanings of the letters are only known to the members themselves and you will likely not get many answers regarding this.

what are some ideas of basis for a sorority? (ex: reasons for starting it) - if you do not know why you want to start a sorority, I'm not sure why you are wanting to start one in the first place?

In addition to the great advice texas*princess posted, you WILL want to read this thread.

It's quite lengthy and contains about 3 years' worth of discussion, but it'll give you an idea of all the time and effort you're going to have to put into starting a sorority.

I don't usually even look at this forum...

But in regards to your question of meaning of letters...

Typically these represent either a motto, or a statement about the group or are sort of an acronym for the groups ideals.

So like if you start a group and decide your big ideals are Friendship, Community Service and Love, you could call your group FCL...except that you'd find what the Greek words are and use those letters. Alternatively, maybe you start a group in which your motto is "For the Greater Good", translate it to greek and find the letters that you would need.

While secrecy is a "cool" part of being greek, I've heard other groups mottoes and what their letters mean, and it's kind of one of those <shrug> moments, because those letters don't mean anything to me. My letters mean a lot to me because of the people, memories, and personal growth they represent, not because of their actual literal translation (even though that is somewhat profound).

I don't think NBO ever went anywhere though. After I read the whole thread one day at work I did some digging about her school. They did have 2 NPC chapters when I checked--KKG and something else. But no TNX.

It's a long road and it's not always a successful one.

Exactly.

I was going to mention that in my earlier post, but I decided against it because I didn't want to give the OP the impression that her sorority (should she continue to pursue starting one) would meet the same fate. I just wanted her to see that it's a whole crapload of work.

Regarding UCSC's NPCs, Gamma Phi Beta was there first, followed by KKG recently. The reasons why TNX decided not to expand to UCSC were never disclosed, so I guess we should just leave it at that.

Well I know you don't go to Colby or Bowdoin, since I know they've both had Greek Life in the past. (In fact, my sorority was founded at Colby:) and I wished for a second that Colby would bring Greeks back and SK could return) Anyways, among things that other posters have been telling you, you'll have to consider a couple things:

1. Since there are no Greeks at your school, is your administration dead set against it? Before starting a sorority, you need your school's approval to even have Greeks.
2. Are students interested in Greek Life at your school, meaning both women interested in joining a sorority and men interested in joining a fraternity? It would be hard to exist in a bubble. I don't know where you go to school, but I know that schools without Greeks can sometimes have a very anti-Greek attitude like
“I’m so happy we don't have fraternities and sororities at Bowdoin. That's one of the reasons I came here.”
—Aliza Marks ’04

It'd be easier (but still no picnic) if your school already had a Greek community and you wanted to add another. There is still a complicated process that a campus Panhellenic has to go through to add a sorority.

Are you interested in founding your own sorority or starting a new chapter of an existing NPC, NPHC, or cultural or multicultural sorority?

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Kappa Delta Chi Sorority Inc. -Pi Chapter Alum