Publicity on founding years?
 

It may be comparing somewhat apples and oranges, but it appears to me that someone who spent a semester in one of the GLOs in the NPHC greek system at Howard University would, whether they really wanted to or *not*, learn all of the founding years of the NPHC fraternities. For example, most of the time that "Phi Beta Sigma" would be seen, the year 1914 would be seen.

OTOH, for members of NIC Fraternities, I haven't seen anywhere near the publicity over their founding years, though the older (1865 and before) seem to emphasize it *slightly* more. To pick a slightly younger fraternity, my *guess* is that someone in a NIC fraternity on the same campus as TKE might get through school with no idea that TKE was founded in 1899.

The NPC Sororities appear to be able the same as the NIC Fraternities in that regard, maybe a *touch* more publicity of founding years, but not much.

The Fraternities in the Philippines are even more interested in publicizing it than the NPHC fraternities in the USA, to the point where I've found at least 3 fraternities that claim to be descended from an American group apparently for no other reason than to make them look older...

For Alpha Phi Omega (USA), I think there is a split between the chapters at the HBCUs (more like the NPHC groups) and the non-HBCUs which don't emphasize it as much)

So how much publicity in paraphenalia and other places does the founding year of your GLO get?

We don't really see it as a big deal at my school... all of the National GLOs at my school are very well established and don't need to brag about age.

For us it depends on the chapter, though on a whole I think we do talk about it more then some orgs. We are proud of being the fifth fraternity founded, and have even gotten some people interested when they heard that.

I think the only way the NPCs really care about founding dates is that there are a whole bunch who all claim to be first (first fraternity for women, first greek letter sorority, first to use the word sorority, etc etc). Otherwise, not really a big deal. I've always like that my srat is the first (for real) but it's not like I wouldn't have joined if it'd been founded in like 1970 or something. Basically, for NPC, not a big deal except for little factoids and taglines (ADPi's "First. Finest. Forever.")

Not exactly the same, but...I was poking around the Web sites of the sororities at my alma mater recently, and I noticed that one chapter claims to be the only one to have survived the Vietnam era. (We lost a lot of chapters in the '60s and early '70s.) Thing is, I can't imagine where they got this idea, because although one chapter has been on campus continuously, it ain't them. In fact, two other sororities also survived that time but subsequently closed, but their chapter was one that left but returned in the late '70s. Weird. I wish I could point this out, but it might seem odd for some random stranger to contact them about it.

As you said, wherever you see the names of NPHC orgs, you most likely see our founding years. Most Delta paraphernalia that I own says "DST 1913." The 9 NPHC orgs were all founded during a time in America when being a Black person on the street was tough, not to mention being in college, or a Black professional, and founding a GLO. The fact that these orgs were founded and have lasted 46-103 years with hundreds of thousands of predominantly African diasporic collegiate and alumni members is remarkable. :)

Shout it from the rooftops!! :)

ONE ONE ONE ONE NIIIIIIINE!

ONE ONE ONE ONE THHHREEEEEE! :p

BOOOOOOO they don't count! lol

Smartypants.

It bugs me a little when chapters mark their time on a campus from their original colonization when they closed and recolonized again later.

It's not a big thing, but when other chapters have persevered continuously, it seems a little lame to see chapters mention their founding dates as if they were there all along.

Of course, I can also see how four or five years off campus pales in comparison to 100 years of campus life, or whatever, or even that it would be hard to mention your history in a way that made it all clear without seeming kind of weird.

(I just remember that part of the DePauw scandal a few years ago had an element of let's recolonize in time for our 100 anniversary on campus, which seemed goofy.)