Triangle Fraternity
 

At my school, the expansion committee has just received a proposal by the Triangle Fraternity to join the campus. While the process of considering this addition to the Greek community is just starting, the members of my sorority, along with the rest of the GLOs, do not know a lot about this organization.

I have done some research through their website. I know that they are a social organization, but they only accept engineering, architecture, and science majors. I know that they have a long history, much like other GLOs. I know that they have chapters all across the country. I know that they have a crest, and a badge, and other things that make them similar to other fraternities.

I think that right now, the main concern is that this fraternity doesn't have Greek letters, and while that shouldn't define you as a fraternity, like I've mentioned, the GLOs on campus are unfamiliar with these types of organizations (Triangle and Farmhouse are the only two fraternities without Greek letters, I believe). It is unclear as to how they will integrate into the small Greek system that we have. And some are concerned because of the line that is already drawn between the business/service/religious fraternities and the social GLOs. They seem to distance themselves from us because they don't want to be associated with the stereotypes that social GLOs carry. But Triangle is a social fraternity, so I guess their "role" has not been clearly defined for everyone.

But with the school being so focused on engineering, this organization might be a great addition to campus, and a good way to get many more students interested in Greek life.

I just wanted to know if anyone has any more information they could give me about this group. Can anyone (maybe some members) tell me some things about them and what they do? Do they function much like any other social Greek letter fraternity? What similarities are there? What are the differences? Would they work together with IFC?

Or... if you are on a campus that has this organization or one similar to it, could tell me how well they are integrated into your Greek system? And do other GLOs accept them?

OU Triangle is fratstars.

Triangle is a member of the North-American Interfraternity Conference so working with your school's IFC should not be a problem. Triangle was not active at my alma mater but we did have Acacia, another fraternity without "letters." They participated in events just like every other NIC/IFC member and never lacked for sorority partners for homecoming, exchanges or Song Fest. No one was hung up on the fact that they didn't have letters. FarmHouse tried to recolonize when I was an undergraduate but it wasn't successful. Alpha Gamma Rho pretty much had a lock on the ag. boys.

We had Triangle, and they were a mixed bunch. They were great to work with for Greek Week or Homecoming, when you need to build a float! ;)

And isn't Acacia still active on some campuses?

No, in the NIC there's also Acacia. And outside the NIC and NPC, there's Ceres for women in Agriculture. (And though we did add the Phi Mu Alpha to our name a while back, there's also Sinfonia.)

So far as I've ever known, Triangle functions pretty much like any other social fraternity, except that it is not a "general" fraternity -- it does not draw members from the student body generally, but rather only from certain disciplines.

It's probably worth remembering that Triangle, like FarmHouse (and Sinfonia), was founded at a time when many if not most of the existing general fraternities expanded only to liberal arts colleges, not to technical, agricultural or other specialized, non-liberal arts schools (like conservatories). Couple that with the fact that while the study of Greek and classical culture was a staple of a nineteenth century liberal arts eduction, it was not part of the course of study in something like engineering, agriculture or music. So around the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, you had new fraternities being formed that would meet the needs of those non-liberal arts students, and you had at least some of them (Alpha Gamma Rho would be an exception), choosing names that would mean something to their non-Greek-studying members.

Triangle actually would be a perfect fit at your school w/ all the engineering majors. It is a NIC social fraternity - not a business or professional group. Since there are 3 times as many NIC groups than NPC groups, they are far from the only one whose membership requirements are a little more "specific." They can do this because fraternities don't work on a quota/total system.

UPJ has Acacia (or did) - from what I know, the fact that they didn't have a "normal" name was not a problem in the least.

If your expansion committee has questions, I would recommend contacting the Pitt or Penn State Triangle chapters.

Triangle's website (as others have stated) will give you a great deal of information about the organization.

I'm curious, though. I've never heard of a school having an "expansion committee" so this is a new concept for me. Does this committee have to approve a new organization's arrival, or does it just get information for the councils to review? I'd think that (assuming your school is public) IFC would handle expansion issues for Triangle.

hijack/

Many campus IFCs are starting to do expansion committees to control the number and timing of IFC colonies. In the old days, a group of guys would get together and decide they wanted to be a fraternity. They would then go to Dean of Students and the campus IFC, get recognized, and then look for a fraternity to pick them up/absorb them. Now, in many cases, IFCs are inviting specific fraternities to colonize on campus at specific times. This semester, Phi Gamma Delta is colonizing at Western Kentucky by invite of the campus.

Back to your regularly scheduled flight.

end hijack/

I'm assuming the expansion committees are comprised of only IFC members? If so, I have seen this practiced before. I was initially thinking there was some sort of "all Greek committee" trying to regulate when/if an NIC organization could come on campus.

Thanks.

From what I understand, the expansion committee is fairly new. I don't know if it is a new concept (it might be described in constitutions or outlined somewhere in the Greek guidelines established by Panhel and IFC), but just recently they have actively reformed this committee because of the interest from other organizations to join the Greek community. The committee is comprised of the chapter presidents from all of the GLOs, and the Panhellenic and IFC advisors. Each president will basically talk with their chapters about the potential addition, and then bring the questions and concerns of their chapters before the committee. Then the committee will essentially be responsible for deciding whether or not the proposed addition would be a positive change for the Greek community.

At Ohio State, Triangle has been on campus continuously since 1911. They operate just like any fraternity except that their members seem to be more in the engineering, science or architecture fields. They have socials/exchanges just like any Fraternity and they compete in Greek Week and Homecoming just as a smaller Fraternity would. They also own their house and have a strong alumni association.

At OSU, Greek Week/Homecoming teams typically are comprised of 1 NPC, 1, non-NPC sorority, 1 larger Fraternity, and 1 smaller Fraternity. Smaller Fraternities are simply smaller and could be IFC or non-IFC. Large Fraternities could be the same, but based on numbers. I agree with Honeychile, they were great to have on your homecoming team because they and the Ag Fraternities could build anything and it always had movable parts.

One of my sisters was pinned to a Triangle brother when I was in school. It turned out, he went to my high school, so I always talked to him when he came to the house.

And let me add... since the new organization would be a fraternity (in this case), the fraternities would generally have more of a say than the sororities as to whether or not the new group could be added on. However, with the Greek community being so small, things of this magnitude would greatly affect all GLOs as a whole. Therefore, all of the GLOs are encouraged to provide their opinions in such matters.

Iowa State has AGRho, Acacia, FarmHouse, and Triangle. I don't think they have any problems with "lack of letters or anything and, in my limited experience, seem to be a pretty good group of guys. Then again, we're a historic land grant university and big on the ag and engineering, so take that for what it's worth.

i would assume that since they're a social fraternity they would act similarly to the rest of us. the only difference being that rush shirts wouldn't have greek letters on it. Hell, FIJI has greek letters and they only put them on a select few things.

At my school, we had Acacia, Triangle and Farmhouse. (two have since left, but they had a long history). They functioned like every other social fraternity: Homecoming, parties, mixers, houses, pledges, participation on campus, etc. Farmhouse was (and is) consistently a top award winning group on campus.