Hi Marie

My understanding of the difference is this:

A society is a group of people brought together by a common interest, this could be an honor society, a literary society, a local historical society, etc.

A fraternity is a specific type of society. One based on fraternal/brotherly ties (or in our case, sisterly, however there was no word for that at the time). Theta was considered a Fraternity because it was founded based on Bettie Locke Hamilton's vision of an organization for women based on friendship, sharing of ideal, and loyalty, much like the men's fraternities found on campus. Therefore, the purpose of Theta was always 'fraternal' ties.

I'm not saying that Phi Nu didn't have the same purpose...I know nothing more of their history than what has been posted here. However, from the post that stated that they were founded as a literary society, it is my understanding that it was not originally founded as a fraternal organization....I'm sure that later on it evolved into a sorority, and I can't say if this happend before or after Theta was founded, that's something for NPC to look into, not for me to judge.

So, basically, the difference in my eyes is that while I may be close and friendly with the people in my book club or honor society, I wouldn't consider them my sisters.

Which are which?
 

I read some where that there are only 6 sororities and the rest are womens' fraternities. ANyone know which are which? I think I know the following:

Phi Mu=fraternity
Chi Omega=fraternity

Gamma Phi Beta=sorority
Delta Zeta=sorority
Alpha Delta Pi=sorority


I have looked at the national websites of some, but they don't really say if they are officially a fraternity or sorority.

Pi Beta Phi is a fraternity for women.

Alpha Phi is a women's Fraternity.

I *think* Alpha Xi Delta was originally founded as a sorority, but then it was changed to a women's fraternity. I know it's a fraternity now.

AOII is a fraternity - for the same reasons we don't have a crest.

Sarah

Here is a list. If there are any corrections let me know.

In sum:
Alpha Delta Pi Sorority, 1851 (Adelphean Society became a Sorority in 1904)
Phi Mu Fraternity, 1852 (Philomathean Society became a Fraternity in 1904)
Pi Beta Phi Fraternity, 1867 (I. C. Sorosis Fraternity adopted motto PBF in 1882)
Kappa Alpha Theta Fraternity, 1870 (January 27)
Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity, 1870 (October 13)
Alpha Phi Fraternity, 1872
Delta Gamma Fraternity, 1873
Sigma Kappa Sorority, 1874 (November 9) (Founded as a Fraternity, became a Sorority in 1904)
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority, 1874 (November 11)
Alpha Chi Omega Fraternity, 1885
Delta Delta Delta Fraternity, 1888
Alpha Xi Delta Fraternity, 1893 (founded as a Sorority, became a Fraternity in 1913)
Chi Omega Fraternity, 1895
Alpha Omicron Pi Fraternity, 1897 (January 2)
Kappa Delta Sorority, 1897 (October 23) (don't know if it changed)
Sigma Sigma Sigma Sorority, 1898 (April 20) (don't know if it changed)
Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity, 1898 (October 15)
Alpha Sigma Tau Sorority, 1899 (founded as a Fraternity, became a Sorority in 1935)
Alpha Sigma Alpha Sorority, 1901
Delta Zeta Sorority, 1902
Alpha Gamma Delta Fraternity, 1904
Alpha Epsilon Phi Sorority, 1909
Theta Phi Alpha Fraternity, 1912
Phi Sigma Sigma Fraternity, 1913
Delta Phi Epsilon Sorority, 1917 (March 17)
Sigma Delta Tau Sorority, 1917 (March 25)

I had NO idea that so many of the women's organizations use "fraternity" instead of "sorority"!! Goes to show that you learn something new every day!

Oh, Alpha Delta Pi started out as the Adelphean Society in 1851 - the first secret society for college women at the first college for women in the United States!

honeychile, is ADPi a fraternity or sorority?

Alpha Delta Pi went from the Adelphean Society to Alpha Delta Phi Sorority (1904) to Alpha Delta Pi Sorority.

That little "extra" twist is due to a Northern fraternity being upset by our use of Alpha Delta Phi, so the Phi became a Pi in 1913.

So, if any of y'all EVER see any Alpha Delta PHI pins that look like the Alpha Delta Pi Diamond <> for heaven's sake, please let me know!!!! :)

Just to clarify my earlier post, I did a little research. Alpha Xi Delta changed names from Alpha Xi Delta Sorority to Alpha Xi Delta Fraternity in 1913.

If anyone else out there thinks this is incorrect, please let me know! I don't want to post the wrong info.

Thanks! :)

I had no idea that AST was founded as a fraternity and then became a sorority, seems most groups went the other way... :)

Yep....Upsilon's chapter charter was the last one to say "Alpha Sigma Tau Fraternity", the rest after that say Sorority. Pretty cool that their charters are different!

AXiD670.....do you know of an explanation as to why you guys switched to "Fraternity"? (Unless it's private, of course!) It is somewhat of an interesting switch, especially the timing.

PsychTau

Sigma Kappa was NEVER a fraternity. Though it's unclear when exactly we became officially a sorority.

This is really an interesting thread! I think it's so great that each group is so unique and we're still one big panhellenic family!

like honeychile, I had no idea so many GLOs for women used "women's fraternity" instead of "sorority".. that's really neat! :)

I'm sure that college must suck ass to go to. But mad props for being the first. Theta First National. Haha, that sounds like a bank.

Can you share the reasons, or are they secret? I didn't realize some sororities/fraternities didn't have crests. Does any other group not have a crest?
This thread is really interesting!

We don't have a crest because crests are not Greek! Here's the exact quote from our website:

"AOII believes that the Fraternity has an essentially Greek heritage, and not one of medieval or Masonic background. Thus it does not have a shield or a crest as a symbol."
http://www.alphaomicronpi.org/conten...tageframe.html and click on Tradition :)

I don't have a copy in front of me right now, but here is a blurb that answers the question:

Bairds Manual of American College Fraternities is considered the ultimate reference guide to ALL national fraternities, sororities and societies. About 20 editions have been published over the last 150 years. In its 1200 pages it lists all colleges and the chapters which have existed at each one, provides detailed histories of ALL the groups and a list of their chapters, quotes significant legislation pertaining to Greek letter organizations, describes fraternities which have disbanded, major locals, important alumni, etc. It lists NIC, NPC, NPHC groups, and all honor societies and professional societies.

Baird's really doesn't do that though. There's quite a few locals in Wisconsin who existed for 100+ years that never got a mention in Baird's. Maybe we just aren't "big" enough of a state?

Baird's is 1200 pages and about $80 a book -- if they included all locals, no one would be able to pick up the book!

Um, I think I know this...deep down in the dark recesses of my brain...:)

I really can't remember. I do feel like I should know this, but I just don't. Maybe I was never told. :rolleyes:

Any other AZD's out there know?

I don't think they've had a new Baird's since 1991, and that one sucked. The NIC bought it and took out a lot of the local stuff. I think at this point they are none too anxious to gather info on all the multicultural/Asian/Latino-a GLOs that have sprung up.

The old-old ones are the most interesting.

I posted the question when sigma kappa started to use the word sorority (not before GPB obviously, but I'm curious when we adopted it) on our members on board, so hopefully I'll get an answer.

Baird's always tried to include the local groups. Their performance is a bit spotty though. Understandably so. And of course as 33girl mentioned, once the NIC got a hold of Baird’s the locals and multiculturals didn’t stand a chance. Now the multiculturals and newer locals I don’t much care about – no offense. But those old locals are a very important part of our histories and I’m sorry to see their stories dropped. Oh well, history is written by the victors I guess. But I can confirm that a group called Phi Nu has not appeared in any edition of Baird's.

That may or may not be significant. If PhiNuBlue can substantiate founding date and continuous existence, I say she's got a legit claim. And I have to admit, I’m rooting for her.

Of course, then the NPC semantics machine will kick into overdrive and everyone will readjust their long list of caveats and qualifiers that let them still claim they were “first”.

wptw

*lol*

If anyone is interested there is a phi nu badge on ebay (i think) maybe phinublue can let us know.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=52573

Sigma Kappa sorority did not incorporate the word sorority until we expanded beyond Colby College and were incorporated into the state of Maine in 1904.

Thanks for the info!

Thanks for the support. :-) I understand a little better where it is all coming from. As for more info on Phi Nu, we really aren't on the web...I've looked a lot. Our site is underconstruction, but I really don't have control over it. I'm the historian. However I can give suggestions. I'm not for sure when we became social/service but I'm sure I have the dates somewhere.

I'd be really interested to hear more about your sorority. I don't think any of us wanted to attack you, it's just that some of us felt attacked. Unfortunately because most of national Greek orgs are arranged into councils (NIC, NPC, NPHC, NALFO), we tend to know facts about nationals but not locals. And most of our firsts are measured as the first national this that or the other.

Yay, you found it! I tried to find the earlier thread that was discussed in, but just gave up because I kept searching for "phi" instead of "phi*" - good job! ;)

I would have been surprised if Baird's included locals. I was surprised to learn that it once did! I don't see how you could keep them all straight.

That's a beautiful badge.

silly
 

Was anyone else the first to jack a fraternity's name from them like we did?!!! :D Way to go Alpha Delta Phi (Pi, whatever!!!)

(Just being silly, the original greek letters of ADPi were Alpha Delta Phi, fits a little bit better with the Adelphean society I guess, but after we discovered there was already a fraternity named that, we changed it. OOPS, our bad!!)
Bru hahahaha

Some Chi Delta Sac State History/Myths/Rumours...

We didn't necessarily "jack" a fraternity's letters, just switched them.
When I was a delphia/new member, an older member told me that when Delta Chi used to have lil sisters, they would let the lil sisters wear their letters inside out... hense reading Chi Delta. Whether that had some influence on what we decided to later call ourselves hasn't been proven, but all of our history is on www.chidelta.com.
So while we haven't been around for more than 20 years as a social org for women, the name Chi Delphia/Delphia etc has been around a lot longer.

edited because for some reason i could not spell 'fraternity' correctly...

On my campus the girls who eventually founded Phi Mu were originally Kappa Sigma's little sisters. The members of fraternities have unwittingly drawn a number of stand-up, take-charge women!

I think, though, that when they created their local they called it Omicron Delta Epsilon (Odie for short.) The Kappa Sig letters don't say anything cute inside out. :-D

The Gamma Upsilon chapter of ADPi began as an organization that formed in the 1930's called 'The Phoreffs".. eventually The Phoreffs became a local sorority and then we became a charted chapter of ADPi in 1953 (we are also celebrating our chapter's Golden Anniversary this year!)

To add to this is the P.E.O. Sisterhood, founded in 1869 at Iowa Wesleyan College.

Of its seven founders, some had been asked to join the I.C. Sorosis at IWC but some had not. They wanted to stay together so they founded "a society of [their] own." P.E.O. chose to retain English letters and to become a community, rather than a collegiate, organization [in the 1880's, IIRC]. Chapter Original A at IWC is Alpha Xi Delta; the I.C. chapter (Pi Phi for lo these many years--Iowa Alpha?) is still there.

P.E.O. is larger than any one NPC group in terms of initiated members and chapters. Probably also larger in terms of assets in the charitable foundation which funds P.E.O.'s projects. Many, many NPC members are also P.E.O.s. (www.peointernational.org will tell you more.)

AGDAlum (who is also a P.E.O.)