Sororities & fraternities at Big Ten Universities
 

In conversation with an old friend who once was very active in Big Ten University Greek activities, she was wondering which groups are the most prominent in those schools today. I did some research & listed below are the groups with the most chapters and the average age of their chapters:

12:
Kappa Kappa Gamma 117
Kappa Alpha Theta 113
Delta Gamma 109
Pi Beta Phi 109
Alpha Chi Omega 99
Alpha Phi 91
11:
Chi Omega 99
10:
Gamma Phi Beta 89
9:
Delta Delta Delta 100
7:
Alpha Xi Delta 90
Kappa Delta 89
Zeta Tau Alpha 87
Alpha Omicron Pi 84
Delta Zeta 82
Alpha Epsilon Phi 77
Sigma Delta Tau 66

12:
Phi Gamma Delta 120
Pi Kappa Alpha 83
11:
Sigma Chi 128
Phi Kappa Psi 120
Delta Upsilon 113
Sigma Phi Epsilon 93
10:
Beta Theta Pi 146
Delta Tau Delta 129
Sigma Alpha Epsilon 122
Kappa Sigma 114
Delta Chi 89
Lambda Chi Alpha 89
Tau Kappa Epsilon 83
Sigma Pi 80
Alpha Esilon Pi 64
9:
Phi Delta Theta 146
Alpha Tau Omega 107
Theta Chi 87
Pi Kappa Phi 77
8:
Sigma Nu 114
Alpha Gamma Rho 99
Triangle 91
Sigma Alpha Mu 78
7:
Acacia 106
Phi Kappa Sigma 90

Proves nothing because we know nothing about the strength of any of the above chapters, but I thought it might be interesting trivia.

Why does this have a sad face?

Why the frownie face with the title?

It also says nothing about chapters that are not NPC or NIC/IFC. ;)

Does anyone know what the point is of this post? Is there something I don't get?

WORD

And, why the sad face?

lane swerve// GO Big Ten! {shameless plug} // going back in my lane now

And subject to change. Alpha Xi Delta is re-colonizing at MSU, Minnesota is apparently open for expansion, I would bet Wisconsin will open for expansion soon and maybe Michigan (all for NPC).

I'd be interested to see about the Divine 9, but I bet they are strongly represented at these schools. I remember several at Iowa from back in the stone age.

I think it's somewhat interesting, from the standpoint of which groups colonized/proliferated in the midwest in their early years, but I don't get the sad face, either. It looks to me like quite a few groups are well represented in the Big 10.

The Big Ten Schools provided a fertile ground for the NPC groups in a time before NPC existed. The term "sorority" was coined when Gamma Phi Beta's second chapter at Michigan was founded, so it, too, has Big Ten connections. The University of Illinois was late to the game (in terms of when chapters were founded there), but it became the home to one of the largest fraternity systems. Its Student Life Archive is also a wonderful place to research the history of the Greek letter organizations. Thanks for compiling this list.

My chapter...currently inactive. This does warrant a :(.

I know that feeling all too well and it does deserve a :(.

I know I've picked this nit before, so my apologies, but . . . .

Sir Thomas More used the word "sorority" in his writings in the early 16th Century. But it was never a common word in English prior to the founding of Gamma Phi. Who knows whether the professor at Syracuse was drawing on a knowledge of More's writings in suggesting the word "sorority" or whether he was unaware of the previous use of the word and just followed the example of others before him, went back to the Latin sororitas and anglicized it in a manner consistent with the anglicization of fraternitas.

Thanks for the reminder
 

Nope, we will never know if the good professor was reaching into his memory or came up with it on his own. I've been trying to find a picture of Frank Smalley and am still holding out hope that there is one in the Syracuse Archives. I am not holding out much hope that we can find out what books he read or what was in his library. Smalley had a connection to the organization whereas we cannot draw any conclusions between Gamma Phi and Sir Thomas More. At least we know Honta Smalley Bredin, his sister, and his daughter were Gamma Phis.

I do appreciate your footnoting this.

Do you know what he was a professor of? I'm not sure I've ever seen anything that says.