Question?
 

Is there any school that has all 26 NPC sororities or has all IFC fraternities represented? Also I have a question about all these skulls and crossbones. I was looking at the NPC pins because of the NPC thread and noticed quite a few of the skulls and crossbones. I have always thought of these as meaning deadly and being morbid. Am I the only person who thinks it is strange for sororities to have these?

In no way shape or form am I trying to offend anyone who is in these orgs, I am just curious I am sure they are the symbols for a good reason, just wondering what the reason is and why? :D

I think that these are present in many rituals... but no one's really going to be able to tell you the significance of them b/c it's ritual. There's not a skull and crossbones on our pin, but there is one in our crest.

oh okay...thanks for letting me know!!:)

No, no school has all 26 NPCs or all 66 IFCs (but there are schools with all of the divine nine).

This Tri-Sigma website gives one meaning of a skull and crossbones: http://www.oneonta.edu/organizations...r_symbols.htm.

What are the divine nine?

I lack on the info!!!

The Divine Ninea are the NPHC, or the historically African American GLOs.

The sororities:
Alpha Kappa Alpha
Delta Sigma Theta
Zeta Phi Beta
Sigma Gamma Rho

The fraternities:
Alpha Phi Alpha
Kappa Alpha Psi
Iota Phi Theta
Phi Beta Sigma
Omega Phi Psi

What makes them so divine? How did they get that name?

I remember when it was "The Great Eight". But I forget which one is the most recently recognized national.

Getting back to the point...

We don't have skulls and crossbones. Other people have them and getting into mascots and such like the dragon, or the key, or the anchor, or the squirrel,... Yeah our mascot is a little different... A Unicorn. Yeah kinda feminine for a fraternity. Now I think what happened back in the time they were thinking of these things is that they did think the unicorn was feminine and thats why our coat of arms includes a severed head of a unicron which is a lot cooler and way more masculine. Now I think thats way worse than a skull and crossbones.

I think fraternities due to for the "secret" or "fraternal" aspect of it, but some, like ours, have a very deep meaning (which I can't say).

Iota Phi Theta was the GLO that made "The Great Eight" into "The Divine Nine"

Divine Nine
 

Take a look at Lawrence Ross' Divine Nine for a historical snapshot of NPHC groups:

www.amazon.com.

I think in some cases (but don't hold me to this!) I think the skull and crossbones was a common symbol for fraternities that began as secret societies.

Not counting TPA and AGD, Penn State has 20. They don't have Alpha Sigma Tau, Delta Phi Epsilon, Phi Sigma Sigma or Alpha Epsilon Phi. AST and TPA are at the Behrend campus along with ASA.