Chapters in schools that have merged
 

Say two colleges have merged. Both have XYZ Fraternity. What happens at this point? Does one close? Will there still be two chapters, one for each campus (assuming that the campuses are not within walking distance)? What if XYZ existed at both schools at one point, and then deactivated. They decide that they want to recolonize. What happens then? Which chapter name would it take on?

I'm not sure how it works as a general rule, but I do know the history of one chapter at the college I used to be at. Kappa Sigma Kappa was a local fraternity on campus. Theta Xi came and colonized. Don't remember the reasons, but they decided to merge. It ended up being Theta Xi so it could be national, but the chapter was Kappa Kappa so they could keep part of the "Kappa Sigma Kappa" alive. Worked out well.

This has *kinda* happened waaaay back in the day ... but in reverse... Hunter college became two schools so Phi Sig had an Alpha chapter and an Alpa Alpha chapter. That may be over simplified.. but I think the story goes something like that. :)

But that could only happen if the Alpha Alpha chapter didn't already exist.

If you have to drive from school to school I guess I'm confused as to how the colleges can merge to begin with, unless one becomes a branch, and branch campuses can have separate chapters.

Penn State-Behrend, Penn State-Altoona and Pitt-Johnstown all have different chapters from the main campuses. It might be easier to answer the question if you specify exactly you mean by "merge."

We're not talking about university systems like UC or Penn State. Say ABC College of Agriculture and DEF College of Liberal Arts (and a few other colleges, but we'll leave them out) merged to form ABCDEF University. Ag college and lib arts college both had XYZ Fraternity. What happens there?

Oh OK - I think we would have this issue if our VA Poly chapter had been around when it & Radford were still brother/sister schools.

If they all come together as one big entity, I would guess that the older chapter would take precedence and they would all come together under that chapter name. Same with a recolonization.

But if they're still operating as 2 schools (different admissions, different dorms etc) then the 2 chapters would probably stay. We have 2 chapters at the same school because it's a co-op and the the people on "A" schedule & "B" schedule never see each other. If we only had one it would be a giant mess.

Isn't Washington & Jefferson College (PA) a combination of Washington College and Jefferson College? FIJI and/or Phi Psi may have gone through this at one point in their history.

Another that comes to mind is Kettering (MI), though I don't know if there are 2 campuses or one...some fraternities have 2 chapters there but again, it may be a case of 2 campus locations.

Tex - Kettering is the school I meant when I mentioned the co-op! :) Duh, thought I had written it down. There aren't 2 campuses, just 2 schedules. When they are out on their co-op job, that's all they're doing - no campus activities - so to go from quarter to quarter and maintain any continuity would be impossible.

An example would be when Knox College and Lombard University, both in Illinois, merged. Pi Beta Phi had chapters at both schools (Illinois Beta and Illinois Delta), and merged the chapters into one, named Illinois Beta-Delta.

In DC, there was a very small all-women's school called Mount Vernon College. While I was an undergraduate (or immediately afterward) Mount Vernon was absorbed by George Washington University.

The Deltas at Georgetown, my alma mater, had a "core chapter" that consisted of Georgetown, American U., and Mount Vernon. There was a separate chapter at George Washington. So, when the schools merged, girls attending Mount Vernon who were interested in Delta had to go through the GW chapter, while American and Georgetown retained the original charter.

This might not be exactly what you were looking for, but it's an interesting story never-the-less.

A Delta can correct me if I am wrong.

This happened when Case and Western Reserve merged. Both universities had chapters of Beta, one being Lambda Kappa and the other was the Beta chapter of Beta Theta Pi (although not really the second chapter founded of the fraternity).

They now go by the name Lambda Kappa - Beta and were merged in 1979.


At Kettering, there is an A section and a B section of the chapter corresponding to which semester sequence members are on. They are basically one chapter, but I think they actually have exec officers for each section...has to be confusing.

Our chapter at Kettering only exists during one of the sections.. I think it's B section.

Dee

Darn, someone beat me to it!

I think there is an Illinois Beta-Delta on GC... or LJ... hehe

I was just wondering about that....what if A section has lots of interested men/women and want to colonize a chapter, while B section isn't interested in it at all? Guess you answered my question!!

So, Kettering really operates as two seperate schools when it comes to students and student activities? Dorm living, etc. too? What if someone switches from A section to B section?

Man, that's interesting......

PsychTau