underground/unrecognized fraternities
 

How prevalent is this situation? I know that several of the SUNY campi seem to have a number of them, and I remember reading on GC about some PA schools having them. Does anyone out there know of any?

There's a whole list of them at the University of Maryland website: http://greek.umd.edu/councils-and-gr...gnized-groups/ A kid I know joined "Pi Kappa Alpha" and I've seen him wearing their letters, but he's not an official member of the group, right? Like he wouldn't be on the national roll?

Other than that I know of a couple of closed sororities that have continued to function underground at various campi...not sure if it would okay for me to name names since there doesn't seem to be an official statement about them online. If it is then I don't mind.

My campus in PA has both "underground fraternities" which are pretty much organizations that were kicked off campus but have maintained a presence and still have a yearly (although small) pledge class as well as "underground brothers" at the "real" fraternities who are not officially allowed to join because of grades or disciplinary reasons but are considered brothers by everyone in the chapter. Can't wear letters or live in the house. I know of three underground fraternities here.

California State University San Marcos also posted an advisory on their Greek Life website:

http://www.csusm.edu/sll/greek/communitynoticereTKE.pdf

TKE did that for awhile at my undergrad (being unrecognized but keeping the chapter open).

I think the situation can vary. Sometimes the university does not recognize the chapter, but the national organization does. This is usually because of a dispute between the parties and likely the GLO not removing their charter as the university sees fit.

There are also probably instances of both the university and the national organization not recognizing the group, but they continue to try to exist.

Regardless, most groups that try to pull this off end up dying off quickly or see a slow withering away.

There are some organizations that have 'city-wide' or community chapters that the National recognizes as bonafide chapters of their organization, but are operated independently of (or do not require) recognition from a college or university.

I am in one of these. There are also a few organizations in operation in my area that also fall into this category.

IU has/had several of these--ATO went underground when they were kicked off campus, AEPi went underground as the "Apes" when they were kicked off campus, and I believe ZBT is currently underground. None of them are recognized by their nationals, either

Sigma Chi is no longer recognized by UNL but operates as a real chapter of the fraternity. They continue to live in their on campus house and recruit though. I believe freshman are not allowed to live in because the house is not university approved housing and all freshmen are required to live in university approved housing. They are not included in events through Greek Affairs such as recruitment, Greek Week, and Homecoming.

At my previous school there's an underground chapter that calls themselves Epsilon Iota which I just learned last night that they were apart of ATO before getting their charter removed

Underground GLOs are not recognized by the school OR their nationals. They are basically outlaws in every sense of the word.

Unrecognized GLOs are simply not recognized by the school, can't meet on school property, post bulletins in school buildings etc. For whatever reason (and it's often pretty lame) the school won't recognize that they exist, but they are totally in good standing with their national group. There are also unrecognized local GLOs that haven't done anything wrong, the school may just not want to acknowledge they exist.

The two terms are NOT interchangeable.

ZBT is back and recognized, but I have heard that the gentlemen who were no longer welcome do have an underground group. APES are still going strong and get sororities to pair with them on weekends for parties even though there is an active AEPi chapter that is recognized. The APES are no longer made up of gentlemen who were relieved of their AEPi membership, they are guys who were recruited and are well aware they are not recognized by the university. Unfortunately, the underground sub culture seems to be doing well there.

CAL's (UC Berkeley) list of recognized groups. The unrecognized are listed at the bottom but here is the list:
http://lead.berkeley.edu/greek/recognized_chapters
PLEASE NOTE: THE FOLLOWING GROUPS ARE NOT RECOGNIZED BY THE UNIVERSITY AND ARE NOT SUBJECT TO OVERSIGHT BY UNIVERSITY STAFF.

Some of these groups (indicated by **) are known to still undertake recruitment/rush/intake. Students are counseled against joining these groups:




Phi Sigma Kappa Fraternity
Sigma Alpha Epsilon** 2722 Bancroft Way Fraternity
Sigma Phi** 2307 Piedmont Ave Fraternity
Theta Phi Psi Sorority
Theta Xi 2639 Durant Ave Fraternity
Zeta Psi** 2728 Bancroft Way Fraternity
Alpha Beta Zeta Sorority
alpha Kappa Delta Phi 2424 Warring St Sorority
Alpha Xi Omega** Fraternity
Beta Theta Pi 2728 Channing Way Fraternity
Delta Kappa Epsilon** 2302 Piedmont Ave Fraternity
Lambda Sigma Gamma Sorority
Omega Delta Phi Fraternity
Phi Nu Xi** Sorority