women's colleges
 

I've been sick the past week, so I've been reading a book on the history of my alma mater. It's been an easy read and very enlightening. I always knew that there had been national sororities on campus at one time, but I never knew the specifics of it all.

Well, as it turns out, there were actually 4 sororities that were on campus at the turn of the century until 1919 (Kappa Delta, Zeta Tau Alpha, Alpha Delta Pi and Delta Delta Delta). It seems as though they were closed based on the opinion of the adminstration, which replaced them with student government . I know what you are thinking and I don't get the logical connection there, either.

So, I've been doing some research tonight and have come up with a question: why is it that a lot of the older women's colleges do not have national sororities? They all started out with chapters, but one-by-one closed them down. Am I missing something? Judson College, Wesleyan College, Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Salem College and Hollins University all have had national sororities at one time or another, but, to my knowledge, now have none.

Any insight into this would be most appeciated. :)

I attended grad. school at Texas Woman's University in the mid 70's, and at the time they had no NPC sororities. Now they have AGD and AOTT. There may be a third one, but I am not 100% sure about that. Maybe someone else knows.

Cluey, Not all old women's colleges have defunct Panhellenics. Brenau University- The Women's College in Gainesville, GA (near Atlanta) has seven NPC groups. I attended there for two years. The seven are: Alpha Gamma Delta, Delta Delta Delta, Phi Mu, Alpha Chi Omega, Zeta Tau Alpha, Alpha Delta Pi and Chi Omega. Delta Zeta and Alpha Xi Delta were there a long while back, but are'nt there now. Brenau has been around for 125 years and counting. There are about 500 undergrads. and most pledge somewhere. Greek life there is thriving! Most, if not all the chapters there were organized in the 1910's or so. My chapter of Alpha Gam was 1913 for instance (Mu).Other chapters ther are Omicron, Lambda and Mu, they are all fairly old designations. I understand that now there is a chapter of AKA there as well. Lisa

I've been doing a lot of research on that subject, too. My university had a coordinate women's college until 1970, at which point they just merged. From what I was reading, during the war, they felt sororities were "anti-democratic" and replaced them with student government associations. I thought that was weird, but I see where it happened a lot of places now. At one point, they had Theta (early Alphas), the Beta Chapter of AOPi, and an early chapter of Sigma Kappa, and a few locals. Now, it's us and Theta.

Lisa,

While I was reseaching, the only women's college that I could come up with that still had a thriving greek system was Brenau.

I came across several that never had sororities, though. For example: Agnes Scott, Mississippi University for Women, Sweet Briar and a lot of the northern women's colleges.

Munchkin,

It is funny that you mentioned the "anti-democratic" sentiment. It actually says in a footnote in the history book that, "The attitude of the administration was that social sororities were undemocratic..."

The college had always had it's own traditions, so they just decided to make the big/little sister relationship part of the collegiate experience. I guess they felt like they could make sure every girl who wanted to have a big sister, would have one.

By the way, I am an alumna of Judson College. Never heard of it? You are not alone; most people have not. Without going into too much history, we were founded in 1838 in Marion, Alabama. We are the former sister school to Howard College, which became Samford College (later University) when it moved from Marion to Birmingham, Alabama. There have been several attempts to merge Judson with Samford, but so far we have maintained our independance.

I am not even sure why this topic popped in my head, but I was just wondering. Anyone know where I should look for more information?

One of the oldest (and most prestigious) women's colleges in the US - Spelman College - has no NPC sororities on campus, but has chapters from all 4 NPHC sororities on campus. I think they also have a NALFO member sorority on campus, but I'll have to ask my friend who's a Spelman alumna about that one.

The greek system there is thriving, but in a different way. :)

Sororities at Brenau are unique for another reason too. They are the only independent women's college in the southeast that has houses.

Also, I am familiar with both Judson and Samford. I'm a native Alabamian and currently live in Birmingham.

Sistermadly,

I do apologize for being NPC-centric. I was just using my memory for college campuses I visited when I was a prospective student. Spelman is a wonderful college and I am very glad that the NPHC sororities are doing well on their campus.

Lisa,

Yay! I am so excited that someone has actually heard of Judson! Most of my friends are from Birmingham, including my roommate and one of my little sisters. I have nothing but wonderful things to say about Alabama :)

Three of my blood sisters went to the "W" (Miss. Univ. for Women, but it was called "MSCW" for the Miss. State College for Women when they were there). They were all in the social club Silhouettes. They had rush, big/little sisters, and other activities but were not Greek. Since it was an all-girls school, they did a lot of social things with the guys from Miss. State (one of my sisters was a little sister for Sigma Chi there).

I don't know if those social clubs would ever consider affiliating with national GLOs, but I guess that's how it all starts!

The “W” has NPHC sororities as well as Mu Rho Sigma, which is a sorority for married women. The MRS web site says that it is a national organization. However, I have done countless searches and this is the only chapter that comes up.

The majority of the organizations, Corettas, Dixie Belles (D’Belles), Highlanders, Lockhearts, Mam’selles, Revelers, Rogues, Silhouettes and Troubadours, are social clubs. The 4-year clubs do act similarly to sororities with mutual selection recruitment, a pledge period, sisterhoods, philanthropy projects, etc like MSKKG said. However, the 2-year clubs, Blacklist, Jester, and Masker, are like honor societies for juniors and seniors.

FWIW, the “W” has admitted men since 1982 but they never changed the name to reflect it.

MSKKG,

One of the Dean's at Judson was an alumna of Mississippi University for Women (and Smart Men, as some people have started calling it). She was in a social club, though I cannot remember for the life of me which one right now. She shared stories of her time in college with us. It was a lot alike, but kind of different from what Judson actually did.

We have families, each of which is represented by an animal. Some of the families were really old, while some of them (like mine) were started recently. Within each family you had big and little sister connections. Everyone who chose to participate in the families, participated in the college traditions which date way back.

I know this sounds like an off the wall thread topic, so I'll try to explain how it came to me.

My roommate went to college with me. She has a biological little sister, who is now at Judson, who is in my family. She called a little while ago and was telling me about how much has changed. They keep changing things to keep the school out of liability issues (supposedly), so I was brainstorming a way to get the traditions issues out of the hands of the school. (I know that sounds kind of odd and I am not sure if it came out right.) Then, I started to wonder if there had ever been sororities at Judson, so I started doing research. It was at that time that I noticed that my college was not the only women's college that was closing chapters down.

Where better to ask about this than on GreekChat? :)

Cluey, the "W" is a fine univ., so I'm sure the dean is an outstanding lady.

I'm amazed at all the different ways there are to experience sisterhood/brotherhood and am so glad I'm part of the system! College life would have been a lot harder to adjust to without a "family away from family" that being part of a GLO/NPHC/local/social club, etc. provides.

aopirose, I did know that the "W" had admitted men. Do you know if they are just day students or if they live on campus? Columbia College in Columbia (SC) is an all-girls college that has male day students.

The men have one residence hall, Frazer Hall.

No apology necessary, Cluey, I was just offering it as a different perspective. :)

The W does have a small percentage of its enrolled me living on campus (they even have a fraternity but I can't remember if it is national or local).

Slightly OT, the W's name may be changed sometime soon -- hopefully if it is (and I'm against them changing it), it will change to Welty University.

Thank you for bring up my alma mater. Just to add to what you have said....Spelman did not have on campus sororities until the 70s. Before that time Spelman's presidents felt that sororities caused division on campus and distracted from the Spelman Sisterhood. Some students did join sororities before Spelman officially recognized them, but they had to do it through other chapters in the Atlanta University Center.

BTW Sistermadly, I agree with your assessment of Spelman! ;)

I hadn't heard about the name-change possibility, but if it's changed to Welty Univ. then it can still be called the "W"!

As in Eudora Welty? That would so rock!

There is also Stephens College in Columbia, MO. They have two NPC groups- Kappa Delta and Sigma Sigma Sigma.

Here's a question....maybe someone more PHC-savvy than me could answer it.

I remember reading somewhere that Chatham College (in Pittsburgh) used to have a Kappa Delta chapter. It was more than likely closed because a lot of women's colleges wanted alums to be more loyal to the school than to their Greek organization.

So.......could KD ever go back on that campus? I've been reading some threads over the past couple months where the GLO (not necessarily KD) is recognized by National Headquarters, but not the school itself.

As long as the school is a fully accredited 4 year college, I wouldn't see why not. Whether KD would want to do it w/out school support is another story.

This seems to be happening a lot more with fraternities- not being recognized by a school, but this HQ recognizing and supporting them. Pi Lambda Phi at Pitt is like this- Pitt does not recognize them b/c of major problems that happened with them several years ago, but their HQ does.

I think it's more rare for this situation to occur with sororities. I've NEVER heard of it happening with KD. Chatham doesn't have any sororities at all, so I highly doubt that KD would ever go back there. I'd love it if they did though! It's only a couple blocks from my apartment and there's a ton of support in the area!

One point on point, and one tangent
 

Wellesley College, one of the most prominent women's colleges in the country, doesn't have sororities, but it does have selective "societies" which have a great deal in common with the early literary societies that grew into sororities. I believe that one or more of them actually have Greek-letter names.

>I've been reading some threads over the past couple months where the GLO (not necessarily KD) is recognized by National Headquarters, but not the school itself.

This is the case right now with both Harvard (which has chapters of DG and Theta) and the University of Chicago (which has AOII, DG, and Theta). UC basically tolerates the groups; they can poster on campus, their web pages are linked as "other groups" on the student organizations site, etc., even though they are officially unrecognized. Harvard, on the other hand, is extremely hostile to Greek groups and won't allow them to use school resources in any way (they can't meet in the dorms, etc.).

It was my understanding that these national orgs generally do not allow chapters on campuses without university support, but that they made exceptions for these campuses because of their academic reputations.

Ivy

Re: One point on point, and one tangent
 

Wellesley has three Greek letter "societies." I believe one is a literary society, one is a lecture society, and one is an art & music society. I'm not sure if there are other societies without Greek letters or not. From what I've seen of the webpages, they function much like sororities. Their recruitment process is called "teaing."

Princeton and Yale are two more schools with non-recognition of their NPC sororities. I believe Princeton has Tri Delta, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, and Pi Phi. Yale has Kappa, Pi Phi and Theta. However, I think the NPC headquarters of most sororities would be reluctant to establish any chapter on a campus without university consent unless the school was one with such undeniable national prestige as the Ivies or UChicago have.

Re: Re: One point on point, and one tangent
 

It's been my experience that national headquarters will do anything to keep their Ivy chapters open, or to establish new ones, or to reopen inactive ones. Harvard doesn't recognize fraternities either, and I don't know what the deal is with Dartmouth. But, I guess a lot of national groups like having chapters at Ivies/MIT/Chicago/Stanford etc.

Re: Re: Re: One point on point, and one tangent
 

On Dartmouth's Student Life website, there is a link to "other organizations" which leads you to the social organizations. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~orl/cfsc.html

My impression has been that Greek life is strong at Dartmouth??

Dartmouth
 

It's pretty strong (they're in the middle of New Hampshire, for crying out loud!), but there's been a move to reduce the power of Greeks there, including making all groups co-ed. We've discussed it a lot on these boards so I won't bore you with the details. But, the national groups DO NOT want to lose these chapters, for what ever reason.

OK, I'm reviving this really old thread because I'd like to make a list of

-women's colleges that had Greek life and banned it
-why they banned it
-the times the chapters were initially founded
-when they banned it
-which chapters where there
-which women's colleges still have GLOs or social clubs

I know I can steal a lot of this information from that huge thread in the recruitment forum... but are there campuses that haven't been mentioned?

Sweet Briar doesn't have women's GLOs but it does have selective social societies called "Tap Clubs".

Alum,

I was just going to come in here and mention Sweet Briar College in Virginia. I went there for a semester, and from what I know of the "tap"clubs, they are very much like sororities. It is a rather small college that is full of lots of traditions.