Phi Sigma Kappa around the country
 

I am curious to see how big the various Phi Sig chapters are around the country and how they are viewed on their campuses. For instance at Montana State we're one of the smaller chapters but by no means weak and of course we're the best! ;)
Don't worry, be honest, no matter what you say it won't hurt my feelings! Thanks in advance,

Dan

Phi Theta Phi Sigs
 

Dan-

PSK at Shippensburg of PA used to be huge they were the oldest fratnerity there and had a huge farmhouse in the country and had the largest party every year with their charity jam concerts.

They lost that house in 1996, got a house on greek row and lost that in may 2001, they lost their charter in march of 2001. They didnt seem to have many brothers anymore and were in alot of debt. This chapter had 50+ brothers 8 years ago and went to like 10 or something.

Anyway they just got rechartered as Phi Sigma Phi which is an offshoot of Phi Sigma Epsilon which you all merged with and are kind of "off the radar map" now- no house, little representation- and ALOT of confusion with the new letters. So overall, they used to rock and now they arent PSK really- hope that answers your question

JLenox
SU 1997

When P S E closed at Pitt St, Ks., they at one time were a strong house! They left campus and now AGD live there! They came back on campus 3 years ago P S K and are having a tuff time as we are right now! Their House is an apt. that some of them are renting and calling it their house!

I met one when I went down for Fros orientation one weekend while very nice he was very shy!

All Greek Houses have good and bad chapters! We are fighting the stigmatisim of being bad boys and girls and that sucks!

If not for us, well you can fill in all of the answers!:)

You can see there are a few deticated more mature Greeks on this site! ( Do not use the word old)!!!!!!:mad:

While PSK has no chapter at Boston U, your chapter at MIT is very strong - Nice brownstone in Kenmore Square, good numbers. They throw a big event for the Boston Marathon with WBCN Radio every year, and are a pretty high-profile chapter.

Though I don't know any personally, at UF we (Phi MU) love going announcing/serenading to Phi Sig! They always receive us well and are all around fun guys! ;)

Tara

---to practice day by day
love, honor, truth---

I may be a wee bit biased but . . . I love my Kappa boys :D My brother (blood) is a Phi Sigma Kappa brother at Clarion University (a smallish PA state university about 2 hrs north of Pittsburgh) and my hunny will be rushing this semester (he got a bid but was unable to go through so they let him hold it over till this coming semester). The brothers on our campus are the sweetest, most considerate bunch of guys you would ever want to meet. At this point in time they're not terribly large, about 30 active members, but Clarion doesn't have many large organizations (because it's a smaller school) so most of the greek organizations aren't too too big. They're known for being one of the smarter Fraternities and very much dislike being called a "frat". If someone refers to them as a 'frat' withing their hearing they will gently correct you and say that they are a "fraternity' and associate the term 'frat' with certain behaviors, they are not a 'frat' but rather a fraternity because they respect women. (their words not mine guys). They are also very conducive to girlfriends, very rarely is there a time when there is not a group of the 'wives' (as they call them) at the house. The brothers that don't have girlfriends would all be wonderful people to date. If any one of them knew that I, or anyone else for that matter, was in trouble they wouldn't hesitate to help. I can't say enough good things about my guys :D

Just wanted to add quickly that they are the Nu Pentaton chapter. I still don't understand their method of naming chapters. Maybe you could explain it to me douthit?

Thanks to everybody for the overwhelmingly positive comments about Phi Sig! It's good to hear that we're doing great all around the country.

As for the naming convention, the first chapters were named after the greek letters, i.e. Alpha, Beta, etc. After that each series has a Greek number that prefaces the chapter name. The six series are Deuteron, Triton, Tetarton, Pentaton, Hexaton, and Septaton. For instance, my chapter which was chartered in 1939, was part of the third series, hence Zeta Triton. Hope this clears up any of the confusion with the naming!

Dan

Tom, I actually know their chap. president. Good guy, he busts his ass to get them back to where they should be. I just feel bad for the crap they get.

But I only know one other PSK. hes a great guy. So good representation so far...

I met a couple of the Pitt State Kansas guys when I was down in San Antonio for our National convention in August. I'm not sure if one of them was the one you were talking about, but they were all nice and helpful when a young guy like me had any questions :)

Dan

We were Phi Sig once, but we broke off and formed our own organization, all break off chapters of PSK. The PSK chapter at my university, which was a break off of our org is struggling hard. They are at seriously low numbers and are in danger of losing their charter, though we've been trying to help them any way we can.


d

Just curious . . . what was your chapter's reason for breaking off from PSK? :)

After winning the chapter of the year award in 1970, we approached PSK nationals and asked for help in obtaining a house. This is the response we received: "The chapter does not have the resources or capabilities to maintain a chapter house at the present time."

There are further politics after this event that ultimately led to our break off. The other chapters broke off from PSK more recently, due to things ranging from insurance issues to lack of support from nationals. There are only a few PSK chapters remaining in wisconsin that I know of. There was once a PSK chapter on almost every UW campus and many private Wisconsin campuses.

d

Damasca- are you now affiliated with Phi SIgma Phi?

I saw alot of their 12 chapterw were in Wisconsin- similar to the Shippensburg Phi Sigs

Lenoxxx

Yep, matt is their chap president. We've been friends for a while, and since I live here in SA, it was cool to see him again in August. the brothers from his chapter were cool guys. Kicked back a few beers with them.

The Phi Sig's on my campus are by far the coolest guys! They only have a total just above 50 I think. I've hung out with them a lot over this semester, and I think my big brother's a Phi Sig...I'm not supposed to know yet:D ....They are a great group and represent their organization well!

We actually formed our own organization, Phi Sigma Delta. We had thought about merging with PSP, but we noticed that a lot of the PSK break off chapters in Wisconsin were going PSP, so we decided to just stay our of our own.

d

***edited*** Well, I just found out about .03 seconds ago that we were in talks with PSP to join with them in the early 90's. But, the talks failed because our members at the time didn't want to be part of the national. Something about the affiliation or history with PSK and PSE and that merger.

ok follow this carefully
 

Phi Sigma Phi, to my knowledge, was initially formed from the PSE chapters that didn't want to participate in the PSK merger. That was in the mid 80's. But damasa, your group broke off way before that, right? Are the other more recent PSK break off chapters you mention part of the PSK - PSE merger, or is it something entirely different?

psp
 

The psp group at Shippensburg was originally a PSE chapter- they didnt get alon with PSK over the last few years and got dumped- PSP picked them up immediately and made them a colony with the same original PSE chapter desination that was last spring.

Lenoxxx

Yeah, the Phi Sigma Kappa and Phi Sigma Epsilon merger was first talked about in 1984 and made official at the 1985 National Convention.

It's interesting to hear about Phi Sigma Phi, I had never even heard of that splinter group until reading this thread! :) It just goes to show how much things are different in separate regions of the country.

Dan

psp
 

We didnt either until they showed up on campus- alot of us thought it was a joke. Read their website at www.phisigmaphi.org.

It doesnt say it per se' but there seems to be alot of anger at PSK on their website (between the lines of course) As a PSK brother does it bother you that there is a splinter group like this out there that seems to be trying to undo what PSK did in the 80's? Or is that a non issue to those in PSK

Oh by the way, I asked at PSU, where I live and PSK seems to be fairly popular here amongst the 44 houses, and they havent turned to PSP yet- just kidding!

Jason Lenox

Jason,

I don't feel upset really so much that Phi Sigma Phi was formed, they have a right to feel that way if they choose. And there really isn't anything that can be done to prevent them from any veiled hostility on their website, either.

One thing that was kind of interesting though is that the naming convention for new PSP colonies is the same as the original Phi Sigma Epsilon chapters. This is to seem as if the merger had never taken place, and I think kind of unfair to the majority of Phi Sigma Epsilon chapters who supported the merger. Anyway, off of my soapbox for now and tossed in my two cents. :)

Dan

P.S. I've checked out Penn State's PSK website and it does look like they have a strong chapter! Good to stand out among the 50 some fraternities there!

shameless bump! :)

To be honest
 

I'm not a really big fan on PSK at my school. I know a lot of the brothers, and while some of them are nice, a lot of them rub me the wrong way. They don't go out of their way to say hi or be nice, and at mixers I've overheard them putting down my sisters. And our chapters are supposed to be "close". They also have a problem with some brothers not having enough pride in their org. One brother held a position of power on campus and refused to wear letters because he felt profs/administration would look down on him for it.

Maybe its like your favorite song on the radio, after you hear it sooo many times, you start to hate it. Over the past few years, we have done everything with them. Our Formals/Date Parties seem to be a fancy mixer between the 2 organizations. Maybe I'm just tired of them.

But, there are a few that I do like...

At the last Phi Sigma Epsilon convention the merger vote was split 50/50. It was the National President who cast the deciding vote that caused the merger to go through. So a "majority" of the chapters did not support the merger. After the vote many of the chapters that did not support the merger had no choice but to go with Phi Sigma Kappa. I can also tell you from personal experience that the majority of Phi Sigma Epsilon alumni have never accepted Phi Sigma Kappa as being their fraternity.
-Moose

Phi Sig at my school seems pretty strong -they have up and down semesters, but all around they're a bunch of guys in good spirits, lots of fun, good numbers, and are involved. Next to DM, their philanthropy, I believe, has raised the most $$ philanthropy-wise for the past several years. We're teaming up w them for dance marathon next year so I may be biased, but over all, I think the general feeling is that the Phi Sigma Kappa guys are a good group.

Our Phi Sigs just got reinstated on campus after a 6 year hiatus from beating up most of the football team after some sort of altercation -but I absolutely love them. They weren't real into the mixer/social scene last year but I think things will soon change - they are very diverse and genuinely nice guys -an example... I was walking to a restaurant by myself on campus at night and he and his girlfriend asked me to have dinner with them so I would not walk back myself -they are just great guys. As a side note ESPN's Dan Patrick was a Phi Sig at our school :) Great things are to come from them I am sure!

Phi Sig @ nwmsu
 

Phi Sigs at Northwest Missouri State are pretty strong, and have been around for a long time. They just moved into their newly built house across from the football stadium last semester, and cleaned up in the homecoming float awards too. At our school there are about 5 or so really strong fraternities (and phi sig is one of them) that if you asked 5 different people you would get five different answers on who is the best just depending on your preference. I don't know that many of them, but the ones I do know are really nice.