Starting a Fraternity
 

Hey everybody

First off, i noticed there was a post on this same subject but i didnt get a lot of information from that post so i will post my own.

My school doesn't have greek life but a few of my friends and I think that the presence of greek life would be good for our school. We think a brotherhood would benefit us and set up the school to possibly introduce other fraternities and sororities for future students. How would i get started? Should i contact a national chapter of a specific fraternity? Should i contact a specific organization of specific people? I looked over my student handbook there is nothing against greek life in the handbook.

Thanks a lot!

Get an interest group going before you think about contacting national fraternities. The national groups will want to be reassured that Greek life really is something the students are interested in and they're not wasting their time.

First you approach the Dean of Student Affairs. If the school isn't willing to allow Greek orgs on campus, it won't matter if you have a fraternity lined up. If they are amenable to your request, they may be willing to assist and guide you. Good luck.

Thanks everyone for your responses i appreciate the help

This is generally good advice.

Also know that some fraternities will organize off-campus chapters at some schools which they deem are worth the effort and risk. Georgetown, for example, has several chapters of fraternities that are not recognized by the school, yet seem to be pretty well established among the students.

So I think both can be done at the same time. Getting a group of interested men together will mean something to both the school and potential fraternities, and if the school won't recognize Greek life, it may not matter if the fraternity has experience with off-campus chapters and think you as a group are worth it.

We could probably give better advice if we understood the type of College or University. For example, as far as I know, if the school is a "two year" school granting only associate degree, that most of the NIC fraternities would not be able to expand there, but some of the professionals or service greeks might be willing to. Size of school is also a relevant issue as is whether it has National Honor Societies and Professional Fraternities...

Now I appreciate that giving enough information for the best help here might identify your school, but just letting you know that the more information that we have. In fact if you identify the school, we could probably tell you if it *ever* had greek letter organizations...

Public vs. private is probably the most important distinction. If your school is publicly funded, they really can't stop you from forming off-campus associations and some national organizations could care less whether the university recognizes them.

If you're at a private school, your mileage may vary. Some are hell bent on not having Greek Life--and if that's the school you're at, there's not much to be done.

Good luck to ya.

In his original posting, the author said "...there is nothing against greek life in the handbook."

Most large schools that don't have Greek Life at least explain that it isn't allowed, which is why I think it might be smaller...

To Original Poster.

One other thing to look for in the Student Handbook is that there might be rules on the openness of Student Organizations which would de facto affect this, either (my emphasis)

A) Student Organizations may not discriminate by race, *gender*, national origin, etc...
or
B) Admission to all student organizations must be on *Objective* Criteria
or
C) Student Organizations must be open to any student willing to *pay dues*.

With A) Co-ed Fraternities would be allowed (which includes a few in the NIC) as well as the Service and Professional Greeks and Honoraries

With B) the Service Greeks *might* be possible, not sure on the Professional Greeks, but Honoraries would be allowed.

With C) you wouldn't even be able to have Honor Societies...