What is your fraternity or Sorority's must interesting fact?
 

Hello everyone! What is your favorite or most interesting fact about your Fraternity or sorority? This is a chance for everyone to learn something neat about one another! My favorite fact is we (ZTA) are a fraternity not a sorority this makes us special from the others. By calling ourselves a fraternity makes us stand alone among the other sororities. Thats my fact lets hear yours! ZLAM- UDZETA :D

UDZeta brings up an interesting subject. I've always wondered how many NPC organzizations are actually called "Fraternities" instead of "Sororities." I know that Phi Mu and Chi Omega are also NPC groups that are called "fraternities" -- what are the other ones? Can anyone answer this for me?

Thanks in advance! :)

Alpha Gamma Delta is a Fraternity.:D

Pi Beta Phi is a fraternity.

Alpha Xi Delta is also a fraternity

Delta Phi Epsilon is a sorority. Many female GLO are officially called 'Fraternity' because the word sorority was unheard of at the time of their founding. DPhiE was founded in1917 when the word sorority was commonly used. :)

My interesting fact is that I've been told that 1 out of 10 women are Chi Omegas and that Chi Omega is the second largest women's organization: next to the Girl Scouts!

Yeah!

Hootie:D

I think that you mean one out of ten sorority women are Chi Omegas. :)

Kappa Sigma's only honorary initiate was Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. That's the most interesting thing I can think of right now.

Collin

Well, while not related to Jeff Davis, I proudly admit that I am related to R E LEE, Andrew Johnson, and of Course W B S Earp!

For Colin!:D

Wyatt Earp is buried in Colton Cal., A johnson is buried in Greenville , Tenn.

Not a damn thing to do with the thread, but was at the House on the Gulf Coast Where J Davis lived after the Confed. lost. Well in his last years! Very unassuming but comfortable!

Alpha Phi is also a Fraternity.

My favorite Phi facts are that in 1886 we became the first women's fraternity in America to build and occupy its own chapter house and that in 1902 we called the inter-sorority meeting that resulted in the formation of the association now known as the National Panhellenic Conference.

Being the die-hard web developer that I am, I think Alpha Phi's most interesting recent fact is...

* In 1995, Alpha Phi became the first National Panhellenic Conference international/national member to have a site on the World Wide Web.

Actually I had heard 1 in 10 women...but you're probably right...as that sounds more correct! LOL! ;)

Something I learned about Phi Mu several months ago is interesting to me...

My brothers share the last name of the man who built the Cannonball House.

My favorite Phi fact:

Syracuse University, founded in 1870, first started allowing women to enroll in 1872. Of the first twenty women to enroll at Syracuse, ten of these women founded Alpha Phi that first semester.

Alpha Gamma Delta was the first international sorority and the first to have a national philanthropy.

I always thought that was pretty cool.

marissa

My favorite fact is very simple:

Alpha Delta Pi was the first women's sorority, founded by 6 awesome ladies at the Weslayan Female College in Macon, Georgia!

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ADPi!!!!!

According to what we leared in Pledge Class Pi Beta Phi was the first to have a national phillanthropy. Hmm...

My chapter was orriginally the cheerleaders (UALR Battlecriers) for the school. Kinda odd, huh?

TG

My sorority was founded at NYU Law School. We're the first non-sectarian sorority and only social sorority founded at a professional school. Our five founders were incredible young women in law school in 1917. One of our founders Minna Goldsmith Mahler was the United National Observer for the State of New Jersey, United Nations Speaker Bureau. Another founder was the first female judge in Connecticut.

Our chapter was founded in 1955....Our first house was a million dollar mansion right on the ocean in Long Beach, CA...We aren't too happy that the place burned down many years back....

Zeta Tau Alpha is the third largest sorority or fraternity or whatever *lol*

Nichole

We kicked out our founder. NATIONAL founder. The one who came up with the idea for LXA.

Marissa, the first NPC sorority to go international is Kappa Alpha Theta who came to Canada & set up Sigma chapter at University of Toronto in 1887, (the chapter lasted from 1887-1941), and the first NPC sorority to set up a chapter overseas is Sigma Sigma Sigma, at University of Maryland at their Mannheim, Germany campus.

However, AGD *is* the first and ONLY NPC thus far to set up shop in Hawaii! (yay, OohTeenyWahine!!) ;)

Here are some COOL FACTS about Delta Gamma:
- DG has had one and only one male initiate, George Banta (a Phi Delta Theta)
- DG actually even had a "call"at one point (I read that in our Pledge Manual, Watchwords...it was briefly mentioned and I thought that was kind of interesting!)
- our 3 Founders were essentially teenagers at a Girls School (likely a prep school or so), called The Lewis School, which no longer exists. :(
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You asked so here goes!
You will see that more NPC groups than not, are called "Fraternities", likely because the word "Sorority" did not yet exist when they were founded. Okay...here you have it....

All 26 NPC groups, with their founding dates:
Alpha Chi Omega Fraternity October 15, 1885
Alpha Delta Pi Sorority May 15, 1851
Alpha Epsilon Phi Sorority October 24, 1909
Alpha Gamma Delta Fraternity May 30, 1904
Alpha Omicron Pi Fraternity January 2, 1897
Alpha Phi Fraternity October 10, 1872
Alpha Sigma Alpha Sorority November 15, 1901
Alpha Sigma Tau Sorority November 4, 1899
Alpha Xi Delta Fraternity April 17, 1893
Chi Omega Fraternity April 5, 1895
Delta Delta Delta Fraternity November 25, 1888
Delta Gamma Fraternity December 1873
Delta Phi Epsilon Sorority March 17, 1917
Delta Zeta Sorority October 24, 1902
Gamma Phi Beta Sorority November 11, 1874 - note: the "term" sorority was coined for Gamma Phi Beta, as the word "sorority" did not exist prior to GPhiB's founding, so previous groups just used the word "Fraternity" since the word Fraternity comes from the Greek word "phratria", which means people holding a common interest. But then later on, Fraternity came to also mean frater, as in "brotherhood". But for the women, of course we refer to it in the "phratria" sense, not the "frater" sense!
Kappa Alpha Theta Fraternity January 27, 1870
Kappa Delta Sorority October 23, 1897
Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity March 1870
Phi Mu Fraternity March 4, 1852
Phi Sigma Sigma Fraternity November 2, 1913
Pi Beta Phi Fraternity April 27, 1867
Sigma Delta Tau Fraternity March 25, 1917 (I think..website is a bit unclear and uses both terms, sorority and fraternity)
Sigma Kappa Sorority November 9, 1874
Sigma Sigma Sigma Sorority April 20, 1898
Theta Phi Alpha Fraternity August 30, 1912
Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity October 15, 1898

All dates are from "From Here to Fraternity"...if I did a typo or a mistake, please PM me and I will edit the post! Thanks! :)

Thanks CP!

To add to that, a lot of people don't know that the Hawaii Alumnae Chapter was established here in 1936... the Delta Sigma Chapter wasn't chartered until March 14, 1992!

;) here are some fun fun facts about good ole Delta Gamma!!

Delta Gamma was the first to have a registered flower with the National Rose Association, so if you want a cream rose from a flower shop, you can always ask for the Delta Gamma Cream Rose.

Delta Gamma's have a star in the universe! It's the middle one in Orion's Belt.

Delta Gamma was the first to establish an independant philanthropic Foundation in 1951.
~fun fact relating to that: Ruth Billow (an Eta chapter member) addresses Nationals at Convention in 1936 to adopt Aid to the Blind and Service for Sight as our National Foundation purpose.

Delta Gamma was the first to build its own National facility. Executive Offices is located in Columbus, OH.

A couple from my own chapter (ETA):
*Eta is the oldest existing chapter of Delta Gamma...founded in 1879....we'll be 125 years old in 2004!!
*Eta members recieved $30,000 in scholarships this past year through the Dorothy Garrett Martin Delta Gamma Scholarship that is given to members of Eta Chapter every year in honor of Dorothy Garrett Martin (an Eta alumnae)

Ok i'm done for right now.....thats what happens when I was just recently VP: Member Education
:D

One of the unique characteristics of Sigma Nu is that we were founded at the Virginia Military Institute. One of the many things that came from this was that all of our officers still retain military titles. This is the list of officers in Sigma Nu.

Commander (president)
Lieutenant Commander (VP)
Treasurer
Recorder (secretary)
Marshal
Recruitment Chair
Chaplain

There are a couple more, but that gives you an idea.

LHT
Kevin Taylor
MT 5
University of Central Oklahoma

I read somewhere that Delta Zeta is the only sorority and all the others are fraternities. I'm not sure if this is true but thought I would put my 2 cents in.

Anne Marie

AOII does not have a crest or coat of arms because we are founded on traditionally Greek prinicples and those symbols are traditionally Masonic. Where other Organizations display their crest we display our flower the General Jacqueminot Rose.

well even though i was wrong on a couple of points, it's still pretty interesting to learn all of these interesting facts 'bout other GLO's.

marissa

Sigma Kappa was the only NPC group to be founded in the state of Maine. It is also the only NPC group to have four national philanthropies: The Maine Sea Coast Mission, Alzheimer's Research, Gerontology Research, and Inherit the Earth.

Greek Love,

Lil Snakey K

One of the most interesting stories comes from a nearby chapter - during WWII, one of the members was killed.

Such a sad story...this brother fought the Japanese in the Phillipines until they had to surrender. He survived the Bataan death march.

He was then loaded with several thousand other POW's onto a ship bound for Japan - on the route, a US submarine sank the ship, believing it to hold war material. All on board were lost.

According to an Alpha Chi I used to know, Neil Armstrong's wife was an Alpha Chi at KU, and when he went to the moon, he took her sorority pin with him and pinned it to the flag at the Tranquility Base. So AXO is on the moon!

Alpha Xi Delta is the only national women's fraternity with the letter "xi" in it. The only other GLO to share it is Theta Xi.

Jim Henson's Fozzie Bear was based on his wife's sorority nickname and mascot (Al Fuzzie, was his name at the time.)

JeanBenet Ramsey's mom is an AZD.

While it's true that Alpha Phi did send several representatives to the first meeting of what is now the NPC, I have always been taught that the invitation was sent by Kappa Kappa Gamma. Click here to learn more about the founding of the NPC...Of course it's got a Kappa slant, but it's still really interesting.

NPC's first national president was a Kappa.

Kappa was also the first women's fraternity to publish a magazine, The Key, and the first to share a cooperative sorority house with Kappa Alpha Theta at the University of Pittsburgh.


And I reach deep into my fountain of useless knowledge and come up with the following:

All Greek women's organizations founded prior to the founding of Delta Delta Delta are properly referred to as fraternities. The term "sorority" did not come into use until 1888.

Of course, he was later reinstated posthumously...a tragic political casualty.

I'm trying to think of some that haven't been mentioned..

The first five women admitted to Colby College in Maine were our five founders.
I think that we may be the only sorority to have two official symbols, the heart and the dove, but I may be wrong.

I am queen of random AGD facts...

Alpha Gamma Delta has the widest span of chapters…from Nova Scotia to Hawaii

Alpha Gamma Delta was the first chapter to adopt a philanthropy…Summer Camp for Underprivileged Youths, 1919

Alpha Gamma Delta was the first chapter to set a minimum GPA…1947

and my favorite...

Alpha Gamma Delta was the first chapter to initiate a non-Caucasian member…Diane Lam, Delta Zeta Chapter, University of British Colombia, 1953

:D

Alpha Sigma Alpha was the first sorority formed in the 20th century.

Also, one of the founders of Tri Delta served as our national president from 1914 through 1930.

nationally, i can't think of any great ones off hand....

but for my chapter, one of our sisters was the WORLD CHAMPION Scottish Highland Dancer in 1999.
also, my chapter named our mascot, Bet-Xi Bear!!