I'd like to add... the very strict house rules about men not being in the "private/sleeping" areas of a house also came from the court challenging of single sex organizations.

I don't know what kind of process the Lambda Chi Crescents or TKE Little Sisters went through on our campus to be members, but they had jackets of their own, wore letters, helped with rush, were cheerleaders during Greek Week and were a structured sub-organization of the fraternities. I do believe there was some sort of initiation process, although I'm fairly certain it WASN'T the process that was rumoured. There were a few women who were in those and also in an NPC, but usually, they joined an NPC after the little sis experience, because they figured out that being in your own group was a lot more fun (could actually participate in Greek Week, etc).

Dee

There's a difference between "discouraging" someone to join a group like this and "forbidding" them. The former wording just means they really don't care for it; the latter wording means if you do so, you terminate your membership.

There is a very, very, VERY huge difference between an honest to God little sister program where they have a rush, a pledging period and basically function like a sorority, and a sweetheart type recognition that h_n_l is describing. They probably shouldn't call them "little sisters" though because (as shown by this thread) people get the wrong impression. They are sweethearts. Sweethearts are obviously OK with NPC groups as any international fraternity sweetheart I've ever read about was an NPC member.

Russ and probably Tracy and I remember REAL little sisters, which is what the NPC and NIC got rid of. This ain't it.

I don't know why, but these "done-away-with" little sister orgs fascinate me! I cannot imagine a fraternity actually having a rush and a pledge period for a little sister auxillary group. Did these girls actually wear fraternity insignia and stuff?

Were any of you GCers little sisters back in the day?

They could wear letters, but I don't think they could wear crests. They often also had special names like "sisters of the white carnation" or something of the like. They had big and little sisters as well as a big brother.

I wasn't a little sister, but two of my good friends were. One of the little sister groups on our campus was so active that the fraternity basically went downhill after they were outlawed - i.e. not only had the little sisters been running their group, they were running the fraternity too.

I was asked to be a Lambda Chi Alpha "Rush Girl!" (That was the trial period before becoming a Little Sister.) I said, "Thanks, but no thanks, I'm a Rush "Girl" for Chi Omega!

All of the fraternities at Mercer had well-organized Little Sister groups during the 1970s-80s. The had meetings, officers, wore the fraternity jersey, etc.

Keep in mind that this was 20 years ago - I was for two different fraternities, but not at the same time. For both groups, the fraternities extended an invitation to become a little sister. There wasn't a rush process per se for Group #1 (NIC). The guys just asked girls who were either girlfriends or friends of the chapter. We had a 4 -week pledge period that involved meetings and service projects. At the end, we had a beautiful initiation ceremony as prescribed by the National. The little sisters had their own crest , which resembled the fraternity's and a special badge from Balfour (Masters of Design today). We could wear the letters of the fraternity but we were told that their meaning was slightly different from the men's. We were never forced or "encouraged" to do anything suspect. No jello fights or catsuits.

Group #2 (NPHC)- There was a rush process but again you had to be invited. Two nights of interviews and then a formal tea with the alumni. After that, bids were extended and there was a formal presentation. There were weekly meetings but it wasn't fraternity education like group #1. We did TONS of community service. The guys had adopted a local elementary school. During the week, we tutored at the school. On the weekends the guys coached Pee-wee football and the sweethearts coached the girls in dance and cheerleading. Sometimes we helped out with volleyball too. We could not wear their letters at all but we could use their nickname inconjuction with the word sweetheart. Again, we were never forced or "encouraged" to do anything suspect.

I think that both groups had classy programs. However, I could see where things could go wrong in the hands of less honorable people.

At SJSU almost everyone has a lil/big from another organization, but it's not the way it used to be (the whole lil initiation and stuff). I have two big bros.. one is a Theta Chi who asked me to be his lil one time that he was at DG hanging out with me and the other is a Sigma Nu who I knew in HS. Of course I have a HUGE family because my big sis has quite a few big bros. I don't have any lil's tho. :(

I was a Theta Xi little sister in the seventies. Getting to be a fraternity little sister was a huge big deal at Auburn and I had a great time but looking back, I can see how sexist it probably was! We were always being exhorted by our president to bake cookies for the boys or do other nice things for them and if a girl had a good big brother or little brother, nice things were done for her too (she might get flowers, jerseys, etc.). If she had a cruddy big or little who ignored her and didn't even call her or come by, then she was pretty much spending lots of time and money on these guys with little in return.

It was like a minor kind of sorority. We had an official name--the Blue Iris Auxiliary--with a pretty initiation ceremony and we had official jerseys. I think all of us were Greek with a large percentage of DZs. Like aopirose said of her groups, Theta Xi never asked us to do anything bad.

Ballerina was a Pi Kappa Phi Rose the last 2 years. I don't know how different it is from what I did.

We do the same thing. Apparently I am the great grand big sis to a TKE or two. And some of my sisters have "little bros" in various fraternties.

At one point my organization WAS a little sister program, but those were all nixed quite some time ago. While we weren't little sisters anymore, we carried on our own traditions and formed the organization that I'm an alumna member of today.

It's kind of a trip though. I once had an old Chi Delphia member from back in the 70s (and on the opposite coast) sign our guestbook. And one of our founding sisters brought in her original Chi Delta member badge. It looked VERY similar to Delta Chi's. The history blew me away.

I do have a question for you though... those of you that do the lil bro/lil sis thing with individual members: have you ever put together a formal family tree? My grand lil sis asked me about adding her lil bro to the tree... I said no, but I was just curious what everyone else does.

At Arkansas State, all the frats had little sisters back in the day. Nowadays, only the Pikes and the Alpha Gams do a big bro/lil sis thing but it's just unofficial. The reason why we do it is because Alpha Gam's local founder Mrs. Lu Nedrow and Pike's local founder Mr. W.W. Nedrow were married, thus making us sort of brother/sister fraternity and sorority on campus. Not everyone has them and you basically just choose one of your friends or something if you want one. I have a big bro and a lil bro, and we are all close friends.

Thank you, I could not think of that for the life of me and I did know it.

Our Delta Chi little sisters turned into Theta Phi Alpha....and even before the little sister ban, almost all the Sigma Chi little sisters were ASTs. Phi Sigma Kappa and Delta Chi little sisters weren't allowed to be in a sorority...the other little sister groups (TKE and Sig Ep) were a pretty good mix of sorority members and independents.

I always get confused when I read about this. "No little sister organizations" It is a considered a big honor to be asked to be on a fraternity court (Rose, Violet, Star and Crescent...). The girls get jerseys and are immortalized on a composite. My husband was a Phi Mu Beau. These are mostly boyfriends that did alot to help the chapter the year they are honored. My husband had proposed at the house so he was a shoe-in. :p I would have loved to be on his fraternity's court but we went to different schools and their court had to go to that school:(

I was a little sister at Chi Phi in Auburn---it was just like a "group" of girls and they had special invite only parties for us and champagne parties!! It didn't matter if you were in a sorority--it just meant that you got along with all the brothers!! I loved being a part of the "Scarlet Society"-DZ Love and Mine--Melissa

Court = sweethearts. They are not the little sisters that were done away with.