Honor Society Question
 

I was just wondering....is it customary to wear letters of your honor society? For instance, I am a sister of Alpha Sigma Tau, and obviously wear those letters ;) Anyway, I also am a member of Lambda Alpha Sigma Honor Society, but would never think to get those letters! But, I do know some people that do. Am I missing the boat?

You can... down here many members of Psi Chi (Psychology) wear the same stitched shirts and bags as sorority members do. Also AKPSi (finance) is HUGE On letters they all have jerseys like every IFC and NPC on campus do. Kappa Delta Pi (teaching) has screen printed shirts. A few other groups have it too, I just can't remember...But I do plan on getting Sigma Tau Delta letters when I have the money, I am proud to be an STD! (lol)

Most of the people I know in things like Psi Chi have a T-shirt or two, but they're not "Letters" stitched and such.

My favorite was Psi Chi, Dealing with your dysfunctional relatives so you don't have to (or something like that)

My honor society chapter had shirts printed (the screened kind), but the only times we wore them were when we were out doing philanthropic events.

I'd guess it depends on the honor society. It never occured to me to get letters for the society I'm in. I do have a pin though. (but I've never worn it)

Not exactly about honor societies, but I have heard about other non-NPC GLOs becoming kind of "anti-sororities" in response to NPC groups. A friend of mine a nearby university told me about a particular music-oriented organization had a good deal of women in it that went through NPC recruitment one year. For some reason or another, a large percentage of the women in this org did not receive bids/dropped out. Lo and behold, a few weeks later, the women in this org all started rocking stitched letter totes/hoodies/t-shirts/etc and wearing NPC sorority style shirts that said things like "Everyone loves an XYZ girl" or "XYZ Angels Collection" etc.

This wasn't something this particular chapter had ever done before, and it was especially odd because the group is actually co-ed and none of the men started wearing stitched letters. Additionally, my friend said that none of the women in the music group that were already in NPC sororities or received bids wore the stitched letters or carried the totes. I'm sure some chapters of this organization, nationally, do the stitched letter thing, but she just said it was strange since the group was definitely seen as more of an honor/professional society within their campus culture rather than a social org.

According to my friend, it looked a little immature/bratty and kind of missed the point besides (in that NPC sororities aren't all about carrying totes and wearing lettered flip-flops) and that it was almost like an "F-you, we'll just make our own bags then" in response to the fact that the women were cut during NPC recruitment. Very strange.

On my campus it would have been seen as totally crazy for members of Psi Chi, Sigma Tau Delta, or Phi Beta Kappa to carry totes or wear letters. In fact, the only org other than the NPC groups that really carried totes or did the stitched-letter sweatshirts were women in APO.

I never thought about this before. I never associated the Greek Letter Honor Societies with wearing letters. I couldn't picture myself wearing a big Omega on my chest (Order of Omega). I wouldn't want to disrespect the Omega Psi Phis in the SoCal (San Bernardino/Riverside) Area.

I never wore a lettered t-shirt with my honorary letters, but I've worn the pins, just below my ADPi pin.

When I was in college I wore my Sigma Tau Delta pin to organization events. When I was president of the organization, it was more than just a resume builder, we actually did stuff. I barely wear it now, though I do pull it out on occasion. I would never have though to get letter anything for any of the honors societies that I am a member of.

All of the greeks at my undergrad wore letters, carried totes, etc, whether they were social, service, or honors organizations. I never really thought of it as a big deal or thought anything of it. To me, they were just promoting their organization.

What is sad today is the fact that people do not wear their Letters or Pins!:o

Are they not proud enough?:confused:

I think it has more to do with campus cultures, Tom.

I'm a member of Alpha Lambda Delta honor society but I've never worn those letters. There are some members on campus that do wear them, but I really only see them at philanthropy events and occasionally on campus, but it's rare.

Other than that, I never really see any of the honor societies or other organizations wearing letters.

Why is that?:confused:

They as members of a Organization are not proud enough to wear them?

I am sorry, it is a form of Advertising of said Organization and how you feel foir them!

Maybe that is where we are lacking?:eek:

So, screw My Org. and wear beer or shoe logos?:o

Maybe it is time for Actives and Alumni to promote this a lot more!

Do you get paid by The Gap or Old Navy to wear their crap? Oh, Nike, Budweiser, Coors, Buschs or what ever?

I earned My Right to wear Lettes and Badges, I just bought t-shirts for drinking beer!:rolleyes:

It is you alls decissions to do and promote Your GLO if you do not, who will do it for you?

I think you're making more of it than it is. On some campuses, certain honors groups/academic Greek societies don't wear letters. On others, they do. Again, it just depends on the campus culture.

Another example: At UCF the greeks (social, pre-professional, honors, etc.) wear jerseys. At UCLA, they wear letter tees or sweatshirts, but wouldn't know a jersey if it bit them.

It doesn't make anyone less proud of being in their music Greek org or social Greek org. It just is a matter of how the chapters on that campus wear their letters as tackle twill stitched letters and/or t-shirts or not.

And on my undergrad campus, no one really wore lettered anything unless they were in one of the BGLOs.

Honor organization pins
 

I think it depends also on the college culture. As a member of one honor society's national leadership team, I'll wear my screened t-shirt for casual events we have at conference or when I'm making casual chapter visits. If it's an important event, such as an awards banquet, chapter initiation, etc, I will usually wear my pin or my necklace. At our national conference, for our formal banquet, many members wear their pins as well as their badges from their Greek organizations. We don't have lettered jerseys per se, but chapters will usually make screened shirts to wear for our philanthropy projects, PR, and recognition on campus.

I think that most people ( new graduates) wear the lapel pins for easy recognition, especially when interviewing, especially in thier particular field.

a couple of our orgs wear screen printed shirts, but they're more for advertisement than "pride", IMHO. I have an ALD shirt that I got at initiation. I've kept my pins and wear them on occasion (functions of the chapter or academic things), but other than my ALD shirt and pins for the other orgs, nope.

Honor Society Letters
 

I'm a member of Kappa Delta Pi (education honor society) and I have never even thought of wearing letters. Mainly because, and I don't know about the other honor societies, but because I don't feel as though I earned the letters and anyone that was at the ceremony knows what the letters mean. There's nothing secretive about it and there was no pledge process, no membership selection. I don't even know any other the other members personally.

Whoever said it was right, it's just a resume builder. Not to offend anyone, but I am not nearly as proud of the KDP letters as I am my SAI or Phi Sig letters. I earned those hardcore with my sweat and tears and will be burried with both of my badges.

On campus I know that Alpha Phi Omega [co-ed service frat] is big on giving letters to their littles/bigs and they'll wear em time to time, but primarily when they're doing philanthropy. I've seen Phi Delta Epsilon [co-ed health] wear their letters recently, I think a lot of them just crossed that's why. Other than that it's primarily NPC and IFC greeks wearing their letters.

APO is not an 'honor fraternity'. We are more like social/general GLOs, as we have a pledge program, etc. Most APO chapters give their members letter shirts (some do jerseys, jackets, etc), and most APO chapters encourage their members to wear letters or APO-related t-shirts when we are doing stuff, whether it be a service event or a fellowship event.

When I was in school (way back when), the groups that were strictly honor societies didn't really wear letters. I was in AERho and Alpha Lambda Delta, but never had any clothing with those letters on it (ALD did give us some sort of pin, but I have no idea where it is).
However we had service oriented greek orgs as well as major specific orgs (pre-law, business, etc.) and all of those did wear block letters/jerseys/hats. In some cases, those members were more "die hard" than those in the "social" groups. I remember one business frat hazing their pledges and thinking that if we had done what they were doing, we would have been kicked out in a heartbeat (they had their pledges blindfolded and were taking them on a "trust walk" around the building- up and down stairs, etc)

I think part of the answer to this is on the make up or character of various GLOs. Sort of the similiar theme that's come up here as to which groups are 'real greeks' as opposed to being in a group that has greek-letters for their name (and the big mistake that too many make is that only the general/social GLOs are the 'real greeks').

When we speak of GLOs (and I include those GLOs that don't have greek-letter names, like Farmhouse etc), we are speaking of a wide range of different groups:

* general/social GLOs (your various NIC, NPC, NPHC, and such fraternities and sororities)
* service GLOs (basically APO, GSS, and OPA)
* professional GLOs
* honor GLOs

Is a particular GLOs just a group with a greek-letter name, or do they use fraternalism to bring their members together into a strong brotherhood/sisterhood? Not all do. At a minimum, such groups have an induction ceremony, but those that use fraternalism usually have a pledge program (a new member training program to educate the soon to be members on principles, history, traditions, etc of the group) that helps instill the principles of the group as well as all the rest.

Obviously the general/social GLOs do that. The service GLOs also do this. I don't know about the professional GLOs. The honor GLOs don't do this.

Thus, being in GLOs that are fraternal, will create the loyalty to the group that leads you to wear your letters and insignia.