Lil' Sis's
 

It's a big thing on my campus, so I was wondering about elsewhere... How many of you girls are also Lil' Sis's of a fraternity, and how did you become one? On my campus, for example, you must be voted in by the brothers of the fraternity.

Role reversal
 

How often do you hear about sorority women having lil bros? And is it as big of a deal for there to be lil bros for sororities as it is for fraternities to have lil sis?

I think the fraternities had them at my school in the 1980's... since then, they've been done away with. I'm almost positive Phi Mu nationals prohibits these little sister groups and such, and I'm sure that most of the rest of NPC does as well.

The closest thing on my campus today? Fraternity chapter sweethearts... and that's about it.

On my campus we don't have little sister groups but girls will have an unofficial big or little bro from another glo or guys will have an unofficial big or little sis. They are completely optional, are not assigned and if a person is in one glo that doesn't mean their big/little has to be from another specific glo. If you get along with someone really well (they are suppose to be platonic friends, but every once in while you hear of them getting together) you just ask them to be your big or little. The bigs usually buys their littles letters and the littles makes their big a paddle.

On my campus, it was always a big thing that if you were good enough friends with a sorority member, she would ask you to be the "big brother" of her sorority little sister. Basically you would just introduce her to fraternity life at the school, introduce her to the guys and help out with her getting used to Greek life. I had an Alpha Phi little sis, and we ended up becoming good friends.

As far as having a "Big brother/little sister" relationship with another organization, though, I know Kappa Sig does not allow that sort of relationship.

I have a big brother at my school but he and I aren't really close. My big is really close with a lot of Sig Eps and he is one of her best friends, so he became my big brother. It's not that big of a deal around here, a lot of my sisters have big brothers but if you don't, no one cares. I haven't decided yet if I want one for my little.

We have fraternity sweethearts, too, which is a bigger deal. Three of my sisters are sweethearts to Phi Sig, Sig Ep, and TKE. As far as I know, each sorority nominates a girl to go interview for the frat's sweetheart. The sister is friends with most of the guys. The they go through an interview process and I think the brothers all vote on who they want as their sweetheart. I think the only real "duties" for the girls are being at the house for the frat's rush, being available for date parties, and stuff like that.

I could be wrong, but I think NPC has the same sort of thing. Or maybe it is just certain NPC groups that have "rules" or whatever against participating in auxiliary groups for fraternities.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

My friend was telling me how lil sis's and lil bro's are pretty popular. When you're pledging, you're big will assign you a big brother or sister from another GLO. You big bro/sis pretty much just buys you stuff and just hangs out with you. It's really more for fun, nothing official. Also, I was looking at my friend's profile the other day, and she had in the bottom of her profile "XY Lil Sis" so I'm guessing that her school still does it.

Kappa Delta doesn't allow its members to be little sisters of fraternities. I know that the whole thing has this scandulous, sex party reputation due to some things that happened in the '80s.

On my campus we used to have men that were recognized by the sororities, not really as a "group", but recognized individually. For example, KDs had "dagger men", Kappas had "Kappa Knights", etc. But most nationals don't allow that either, I know ours did, but our Campus Panhell voted to abolish those last year.

The primary reason that little sister orgs were put to rest had to do with court challenges of the "single sex" status of fraternities and sororities. We have to be cautious to maintain certain requirements to ensure that we can continue to exist as single sex organizations and those groups violated the requirements.

When they did away with them, on my campus, the both the TKE Little Sisters and the Lambda Chi Crescents became interest groups for NPC sororities and are now NPC groups.

Dee

Wow, I didn't know there were so many opposed to "Lil' Sis's."

On my campus, for instance, there are Sigma Tau Gamma Sweethearts and Sigma Pi Orchids. They are girls who were voted on by the brothers of the fraternities to be those who wear rush shirts, help with both rush and social events, and promote the fraternities. It has nothing to do with the sororities on campus. Many of the Lil' Sis's, Sweethearts, Orchids, etc. are also members of sororities, but others are non-Greeks. Once a girl becomes a Lil' Sis or whatever, a brother agrees to be her sponsor or Big Brother.

I always thought the idea was cute... *shrugs*

That's the reason Auburn Panhellenic doesn't want sorority members to be little sisters. My sorority even has it in our bylaws that we are not allowed to participate.

All NPC sororities have it in their bylaws that members aren't allowed to be part of such organizations. At least I believe it's all NPC's bylaws, being that NPC passed the resolution

They aren't really organizations--or they're not on my campus, anyway. They're individual girls who already associate with the particular fraternities, and the brothers agree that the girls would represent the fraternity well. They aren't initiated in any way, don't hold meetings, and aren't so closely associated with the brothers that they know any secrets of the brotherhood. So I really don't see how the single sex-ism of fraternities and sororities is threatened in any way. *shrugs*

It's a matter of whether or not the girl's already a member of a sorority, namely, in this case, the NPC.

It doesn't matter if these "little sisters" aren't formally organized -- if she's a member of an NPC sorority, and NPC bylaws clearly state that they're not to be officially associated with XYZ fraternity as a "little sister", then that's going against policy.

The NPC is very clear when it encourages its members to not officially associate themselves with little sister labels, sweetheart orgs, or high school auxilliary groups.

I'd like to add... the very strict house rules about men not being in the "private/sleeping" areas of a house also came from the court challenging of single sex organizations.

I don't know what kind of process the Lambda Chi Crescents or TKE Little Sisters went through on our campus to be members, but they had jackets of their own, wore letters, helped with rush, were cheerleaders during Greek Week and were a structured sub-organization of the fraternities. I do believe there was some sort of initiation process, although I'm fairly certain it WASN'T the process that was rumoured. There were a few women who were in those and also in an NPC, but usually, they joined an NPC after the little sis experience, because they figured out that being in your own group was a lot more fun (could actually participate in Greek Week, etc).

Dee

There's a difference between "discouraging" someone to join a group like this and "forbidding" them. The former wording just means they really don't care for it; the latter wording means if you do so, you terminate your membership.

There is a very, very, VERY huge difference between an honest to God little sister program where they have a rush, a pledging period and basically function like a sorority, and a sweetheart type recognition that h_n_l is describing. They probably shouldn't call them "little sisters" though because (as shown by this thread) people get the wrong impression. They are sweethearts. Sweethearts are obviously OK with NPC groups as any international fraternity sweetheart I've ever read about was an NPC member.

Russ and probably Tracy and I remember REAL little sisters, which is what the NPC and NIC got rid of. This ain't it.

I don't know why, but these "done-away-with" little sister orgs fascinate me! I cannot imagine a fraternity actually having a rush and a pledge period for a little sister auxillary group. Did these girls actually wear fraternity insignia and stuff?

Were any of you GCers little sisters back in the day?

They could wear letters, but I don't think they could wear crests. They often also had special names like "sisters of the white carnation" or something of the like. They had big and little sisters as well as a big brother.

I wasn't a little sister, but two of my good friends were. One of the little sister groups on our campus was so active that the fraternity basically went downhill after they were outlawed - i.e. not only had the little sisters been running their group, they were running the fraternity too.

I was asked to be a Lambda Chi Alpha "Rush Girl!" (That was the trial period before becoming a Little Sister.) I said, "Thanks, but no thanks, I'm a Rush "Girl" for Chi Omega!

All of the fraternities at Mercer had well-organized Little Sister groups during the 1970s-80s. The had meetings, officers, wore the fraternity jersey, etc.

Keep in mind that this was 20 years ago - I was for two different fraternities, but not at the same time. For both groups, the fraternities extended an invitation to become a little sister. There wasn't a rush process per se for Group #1 (NIC). The guys just asked girls who were either girlfriends or friends of the chapter. We had a 4 -week pledge period that involved meetings and service projects. At the end, we had a beautiful initiation ceremony as prescribed by the National. The little sisters had their own crest , which resembled the fraternity's and a special badge from Balfour (Masters of Design today). We could wear the letters of the fraternity but we were told that their meaning was slightly different from the men's. We were never forced or "encouraged" to do anything suspect. No jello fights or catsuits.

Group #2 (NPHC)- There was a rush process but again you had to be invited. Two nights of interviews and then a formal tea with the alumni. After that, bids were extended and there was a formal presentation. There were weekly meetings but it wasn't fraternity education like group #1. We did TONS of community service. The guys had adopted a local elementary school. During the week, we tutored at the school. On the weekends the guys coached Pee-wee football and the sweethearts coached the girls in dance and cheerleading. Sometimes we helped out with volleyball too. We could not wear their letters at all but we could use their nickname inconjuction with the word sweetheart. Again, we were never forced or "encouraged" to do anything suspect.

I think that both groups had classy programs. However, I could see where things could go wrong in the hands of less honorable people.

At SJSU almost everyone has a lil/big from another organization, but it's not the way it used to be (the whole lil initiation and stuff). I have two big bros.. one is a Theta Chi who asked me to be his lil one time that he was at DG hanging out with me and the other is a Sigma Nu who I knew in HS. Of course I have a HUGE family because my big sis has quite a few big bros. I don't have any lil's tho. :(

I was a Theta Xi little sister in the seventies. Getting to be a fraternity little sister was a huge big deal at Auburn and I had a great time but looking back, I can see how sexist it probably was! We were always being exhorted by our president to bake cookies for the boys or do other nice things for them and if a girl had a good big brother or little brother, nice things were done for her too (she might get flowers, jerseys, etc.). If she had a cruddy big or little who ignored her and didn't even call her or come by, then she was pretty much spending lots of time and money on these guys with little in return.

It was like a minor kind of sorority. We had an official name--the Blue Iris Auxiliary--with a pretty initiation ceremony and we had official jerseys. I think all of us were Greek with a large percentage of DZs. Like aopirose said of her groups, Theta Xi never asked us to do anything bad.

Ballerina was a Pi Kappa Phi Rose the last 2 years. I don't know how different it is from what I did.

We do the same thing. Apparently I am the great grand big sis to a TKE or two. And some of my sisters have "little bros" in various fraternties.

At one point my organization WAS a little sister program, but those were all nixed quite some time ago. While we weren't little sisters anymore, we carried on our own traditions and formed the organization that I'm an alumna member of today.

It's kind of a trip though. I once had an old Chi Delphia member from back in the 70s (and on the opposite coast) sign our guestbook. And one of our founding sisters brought in her original Chi Delta member badge. It looked VERY similar to Delta Chi's. The history blew me away.

I do have a question for you though... those of you that do the lil bro/lil sis thing with individual members: have you ever put together a formal family tree? My grand lil sis asked me about adding her lil bro to the tree... I said no, but I was just curious what everyone else does.

At Arkansas State, all the frats had little sisters back in the day. Nowadays, only the Pikes and the Alpha Gams do a big bro/lil sis thing but it's just unofficial. The reason why we do it is because Alpha Gam's local founder Mrs. Lu Nedrow and Pike's local founder Mr. W.W. Nedrow were married, thus making us sort of brother/sister fraternity and sorority on campus. Not everyone has them and you basically just choose one of your friends or something if you want one. I have a big bro and a lil bro, and we are all close friends.

Thank you, I could not think of that for the life of me and I did know it.

Our Delta Chi little sisters turned into Theta Phi Alpha....and even before the little sister ban, almost all the Sigma Chi little sisters were ASTs. Phi Sigma Kappa and Delta Chi little sisters weren't allowed to be in a sorority...the other little sister groups (TKE and Sig Ep) were a pretty good mix of sorority members and independents.

I always get confused when I read about this. "No little sister organizations" It is a considered a big honor to be asked to be on a fraternity court (Rose, Violet, Star and Crescent...). The girls get jerseys and are immortalized on a composite. My husband was a Phi Mu Beau. These are mostly boyfriends that did alot to help the chapter the year they are honored. My husband had proposed at the house so he was a shoe-in. :p I would have loved to be on his fraternity's court but we went to different schools and their court had to go to that school:(

I was a little sister at Chi Phi in Auburn---it was just like a "group" of girls and they had special invite only parties for us and champagne parties!! It didn't matter if you were in a sorority--it just meant that you got along with all the brothers!! I loved being a part of the "Scarlet Society"-DZ Love and Mine--Melissa

Court = sweethearts. They are not the little sisters that were done away with.

Good because courts are great fun!

We don't have little sister organizations--we do have a couple cliques of unaffiliated girls who are always at our house, but we just refer to them as 'groupies.'
Actual little sisters exist now only as part of Greek families. From the perspective of yours truly--a new fraternity member, a big sister is someone you have probably gotten to know decently well, as initiated earlier than you, and your big brother generally sets the whole thing up. Likewise, a girl's big sister might come to me sometime and ask if I'd like to be her big brother. Big sister/big brother revealings generally involve blindfolds, a series of clues, and all sorts of shots.

:)
Silver

While we are not NIC (although we are IFC on some campuses), we have a similar policy. Little sister/auxilliary groups are forbidden.

We can have chapter sweethearts, but there can only be one chapter sweetheart at a time.

That's one of the primary reasons, for sure.

The other primary reason was/is risk management -- auxilliary groups extend chapter and national liability exposure.

Re: Lil' Sis's
 

Ummm i would like to correct you on a couple of your statements regarding Auxillary groups. They were not banned they were to release all ties to their respective organizations due to legal issues ( that is the really short version) They are not it illegal at all they are only illegal in this term saying it is illegal for any memeber of frat/sorority to participate in the inner workings of these groups meaning they cannot make these girls however these groups are allowed to exsist i know because i am an angel and this ruling took place in 1990 which was 15 years ago and i became one by ongoing a process and since someone is giving false information i need to say why the were disbanned. in 1989-90 there was a girl who was a sweetheart for a white fraternity and she felt she learned the same info as her big bros she protested and they allowed her to take the examination and they allowed her the right to enter to provent this from happening again they disbanned them all in 1990 But we are not ILLEGAL

Re: Re: Lil' Sis's
 

What I find odd or interesting if you will about my campus is that we have an official Brother chapter, every group does (except alpha sig, they are the 7th fraternity and there are only 6 sororities). However, we have never given big brothers or big sis's to either group.

Re: Re: Re: Lil' Sis's
 

Just as a question, what does it mean when a girl in an NPC sorority has XYZ Little Sister in her profile on AIM? (I saw this on a girl's profile whom I haven't spoken to since high school so it's not like I can ask her.

Re: Re: Re: Lil' Sis's
 

Use of complete sentences helps as well.

What little bit of the post I could follow seemed to be arguing that little sister groups are not "illegal." Illegal according to whom -- the government, a "big brother" org or a little sister's sorority -- isn't at all clear. The poster claims to know this because (1) she was in a little sister group and (2) she apparently has heard an urban legend of some fraternity that "had to" initate a little sister because she knew the same info as her "big brothers." As if learning some info and taking a test are the only criteria for initiation into a fraternity.

Okay, sure.