Oldest GLO on campus?
 

I was wondering which GLO at your school was the first one there. At ECU, Phi Sigma Pi's Tau chapter was the first (founded 1936). My GLO, Alpha Phi Omega's Kappa Upsilon chapter was 2nd (founded 1953). What about your schools?

At West Georgia College, now State Universities, the Greek system was established in the early 1970's. I know that Alpha Gamma Delta was originally a local sorority and was installed as Gamma Tau Chapter on April 30, 1971.

I'm not sure about the other sororities, Delta Delta Delta, Phi Mu, Kappa Delta and Chi Omega. Alpha Xi Delta began about 10 years ago.

Iowa State Cyclones!
 

The oldest fraternity in Iowa State is Delta Tau Delta, established in 1875. Pi Beta Phi is the first sorority on campus, in 1877.

For the full history of Iowa State's Greek system, click here

At Nebraska Phi Delta Theta was founded locally in 1875, Sigma Chi followed in 1883, and then Beta was founded on the night of the Lincoln Industrial Parade September 15 1888. It's somewhat unfortunate that Phi Delt is now on the verge of extinction with less than 15 members, and they were unable to sign anyone during rush.

As for the sororities Kappa Kappa Gamma was founded in 1884, and Delta Gamma in 1888.

The Beta Chapter of Delta Tau Delta was established at Ohio University in 1862 and has been continuously active ever since -- but I'm pretty sure Beta Theta Pi was there before that, and there may have been one or two others.

Pi Beta Phi was the first sorority.

I don't know what the oldest fraternity at Duke is, but I think ADPi is the oldest sorority - I think it's the Omicron chapter; ZTA was close, we had the Phi chapter, but they dissolved in 1993 and are no longer here.

At Northern Kentucky University Delta Zeta is the oldest Sorority and Pi Kappa Alpha is the oldest fraternity. We are both celebrating our 30th anniversary on campus this year!

AGDLynn, I think the 4 sororities you mentioned all became national groups in the same year, 1968. I don't know if they were locals first.

I think AXP is the oldest fraternity. Sororities were here first, and I think maybe sigma kappa or tri sig? I really don't know though.

I'm not sure what the oldest fraternity is. Maybe SAE, Kappa Sig, Phi Delt.....
As for sororities, ZTA came first in 1971.

At the Univ of Puget Sound...
Pi Phi was the first sorority (1948) - yeah!
I'm not sure about fraternity, but I think it was Sigma Chi.

Pi Phi was also the first national GLO at Washington State University (1912)

Kent State----not sure about the fraternity, but the first sorority was Chi Omega, installed on June 7, 1947......YEAH XO!!!!

University of Illinois--Delta Tau Delta and there is a dispute between Kappa Alpha Theta and Pi Beta Phi.

The greek system in the SUNY (State University of New York) system is fairly new since the SUNY system itself was started in 1950. Binghamton's first national chapter was TEP which was promptly closed. There were a few local fraternities which started in the 1960's. The bulk of the national GLO's started from the mid-1980's to the early 1990's. DPhiE started as the second local sorority in 1982 and went national in 1985.

At Valdosta State, TKE is the oldest on Jan 17, 1959. On the same day Pi Kappa Phi became the second fraternity. We beat them on campus by 5 mins!

The Zeta Chapter of Pi Beta Phi came to the University of Iowa in 1882 - they've been here ever since, i believe!

Sig Ep was chartered as the first national fraternity at Texas A&M University in 1963, and Delta Zeta was chartered as the first national sorority in 1975. Fraternities were not university recognized student organizations until 1978, with Sororities following in the early 80's.

The stories of how all those underground Greeks met and rushed at A&M until they were recognized are really funny!

Carnation,

Yes, there are some pretty hilarious stories relating back to the fact that since the University refused to recognize social fraternities and sororities as official student organizations, they were not allowed to advertise on campus or use campus facilities for their affairs. Couple that problem with the allure of these org's being taboo as far as the administration went and the resulting autonomy of the org's themselves........ The greek scene here was pretty wild for a while.

Kappa Delta is the oldest sorority at Longwood College (founded in 1897) but Tri Sigma is the longest standing (founded 1898 and never gone underground). I have no idea which fraternity has been here the longest. Longwood wasn't even co-ed until the 1970s.

At elon university, Tri-Sigma was the first national GLO to colonize in 1970, followed by Phi Mu and ASA in the 1970's. I think the oldest frat on campus is Sigma Chi.

At Rose-Hulman, then Rose Polytechnic Institute, ATO was founded in 1894, followed closely by Theta Xi, Sigma Nu, and PIES, which became Theta Kappa Nu, and then Lambda Chi Alpha. We were founded in 1900, and I believe SN was before us and TX was after us. There were a couple other fraternities that aren't around any more back in the early 1900s, and no one else came on campus until the 1960s with Triangle and FIJI, and then in the 80's Delta Sigma Phi and Pi Kappa Alpha. I have no idea when Alpha Phi Omega or any of the academic/honorary fraternities were started here.

The first sorority was Chi Omega, in 1996, just a year after the school went co-ed. Later the same year Tri-Delt was started here.

Actually, I am fairly confident that Beta Theta Pi was the first fraternity founded at UM....this is out of the Son of the Stars, pledge manual:

"......In thirty-three instances, Beta has enterd an institution with the first chapter of any fraternity to be represented there and in seven others instances, Beta was second. In a number of cases, the Beta chapter was the only one for ten to twenty years before the appearance of its first rival. The thirty three campuses where Beta pioneered are listed.....Michigan (Lambda) - 1845....Chi Psi came later that year."

Actually both came at the same time, in 1845 and they both claim to be the first fraternity at UM. Here is why each has a claim. Chi Psi was the first fratenity to set itself at UM (and the first to have a house in US Greek history), however fraternities were against UM's code of conduct at the time and it wasnt recognized along with Beta. Beta however was the first fraternity to show a legalized constitution to the Board of Regents, which would make it the first recognized fraternity. Its kinda confusing but you can read more into it at UM Greek History
Plus both fraternities have they are the first on their websites...
Beta Theta Pi- Lambda Chapter
Chi Psi- Alpha Epsilon Chapter

Not sure about the first fraternity at MIT, but the first sorority was Alpha Phi.

Thanks for the info. I can only imagine how difficult it can be for a chapter to trace their roots back 155 years. I can understand them both claiming to be the oldest.

As Carnation knows, I was one of the chapter consultants sent to TAMU in early 1975 to begin the Panhellenic system. We followed up on recommendations from alums. ("Hi, I'm from Alpha Gamma Delta. We're starting a chapter here at A & M and Mrs. Smith from your hometown suggested I call you.") Since many of these coeds didn't know one sorority from another on more than one occasion they scheduled themselves for coke dates with reps from two sororities. Then there were the hours and hours of meetings to set up the college panhellenic--DZ's Gwen McKeeman (sp) and AGD's Patsy Davis were especially helpful.

Carnation and I still laugh about Debbie L's experience. Debbie was invited to a wedding shower at the Bryan, TX, country club. She walked into the wrong room and and only later realized that Rhonda, the bride-to-be, wasn't there. It turned out she was at a rush party. She never got to the shower but she did pledge Chi O. (Debbie was something of a ditz and for all Carnation and I know she still is, 27 years later.)

at the University of Southern California, Theta was the first sorority in 1887.

for all the houses:
KAT - 1887
AXO -1895
PiPhi - 1917
DDD - 1921
DG - 1922
ADPi - 1925
GPhiB - 1938
APhi -1945
KKG - 1947

University of Akron's oldest GLO's:
Delta Tau Delta (Eta Chapter) was the first fraternity on campus in 1873.
Kappa Kappa Gamma (Lambda Chapter) was the first sorority on campus in 1877.

Delta Gamma (Eta Chapter) was the next sorority in 1879 and is now the oldest existing Delta Gamma Chapter nationally.

I'm not sure about the fraternities, but UBC's oldest sorority is Kappa Kappa Gamma and they've been there since 1929 (I think...).

Here at Eastern Michigan University, I am not 100% on nationals that have been here the longest, we colonized in 1974, but i know that tri-sigma has been here since at least the fifties. However, our oldest chapters sorority and fraternity-wise are our locals. Sigma Nu Phi was established in 1897 I believe (interesting story that I just heard was the they were Sigma Nu, but when the National faternity, Sigma Nu came here, they had to add Phi) Our oldest fraternity is Arm of Honor, which is the oldest active local fraternity in the world. I believe they were founded in 1870-something

At Case Western Reserve, Sigma Psi (a local) is the oldest sorority still there, founded 1897. Alpha Phi was the first national, in 1980. That is - the first national that is still there. The first sorority to ever come to campus was DG in 1883, but they weren't open very long. They very much want to come back but Panhel votes it down every year - the campus hasn't yet supported five chapters, let alone six.

(If any DG knows what chapter letter the Western Reserve College chapter was, please PM me! Our school's greek life page says it was at the Cleveland College for Women, but I am 99% certain that Western Reserve hadn't created a separate women's college yet at that point.) Actually, I believe Theta was there in the 40s (it was Flora Stone Mather then). I'm trying to piece together my U's Greek history and it's insane b/c the college went by different names and merged and whatnot.

Fraternities started in 1840 at Western Reserve.

UT-San Antonio
 

The fraternity system was established in 1978. Sig Ep was the first to colonize in Spring of 1978. Lambda Chi came on campus Fall of 1978. TKE followed in Spring of 1979. Then we didnt expand again till the mid-late 80's, Earliy 90's, then again in the late 90's.

As for sororities, 4 came on in Fall of 1978: ASA, Alpha Sigma Tau, AOPi, and Sigma Kappa. AST folded a year later and PHC existed with the 3 groups until 1999, when Phi Mu was brought to campus.

I didn't realize that Case Western did have a DG chapter. I will try to find out what chapter it actually was. Since it was founded after my chapter, I assume that it might have been the Delta Chapter because at this time the two that are missing from the list are Alpha and Delta and since we didn't go exactly in order of the Greek Alphabet in the beginning it is difficult to pick out. I will do my best to find out cause i'm curious now too = )

Delta Gamma
Eta Chapter

I think that figure is incorrect, because there is a local fraternity on the University of Wisconsin-Platteville campus that was established in 1866, and they are still active today. I'm not sure if there was a time when they went inactive, I think maybe just once, but don't quote me on that.

blaine

I believe that SAE is the oldest house on campus, with Lambda Chi right behind. Our school is weird in that we used to be a big Greek school, but then our President got rid of many of them in the 70s. They had been in some beautiful houses right on campus, but the President sold those houses to MIT, and they are now MIT fraternities. In that way, most of the other houses on campus are relatively new. (We've only been here since 1987).

Collin

@ Pace University
 

The oldest Sorority at Pace is (my very own) Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. founded in 1908. ;) The oldest Fraternity at Pace is Tau Kappa Epsilon. There are locals who have been at Pace longer than those organizations, but those organizations were just made up in the 1980's. It causes so much confusion there. :rolleyes: