What the fuss does Panhellenic mean?
 

At my college the are xxx fraternities and
xxx soroities and there's the Panhellenic
Association. What does Panhellenic mean and
what do they do?

I'm not sure what you mean by "xxx fraternities".. does that just represent their various Greek letters?

As far as Panhellenic Association goes, it sounds like an organization reserved for your campus. Are all/most/some of the GLO's on your campus local chapters? If so, this might be the governing body for them, or at least the sororities. I know that at my school, the local sororities had what they called a "Panhellenic Council" (But it wasn't THE Panhellenic Council) to keep them all on the same track, kind of.

There is also THE Panhellenic Council and National Panehellenic Council (NPC). These are bodies that govern all national sororities: One of them governs traditionally African-American Sororities and the other traditionally white sororities, but I always mix them up http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif (I *think* NPC is for African-American sororities, but i could be wrong.)

(There are fraternity councils for fraternities, and a Professional Fraternity Association (PFA) for professional frats/sororities). For example, my fraternity is a member of PFA, so we share resources, ideas, etc. w/ other PFA members, and the PFA establishes guidelines (voted on by members/alumni of the GLO's) for the members. Whether it be GPA requirements or rush regulations or whatever.

Anyways, these bodies create and enforce general guidelines, i.e. Rush regulations, alcohol issues, membership requirements/limitations, etc.

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I will leave the more detailed (and definately more accurate) definition up to Barbara, as she is very knowledgeable in this area. Hopefully I've given you some idea of their purpose in the meantime.

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Phi Beta Fraternity for the Creative and Performing Arts.
http://homepages.go.com/~phibetaphichapter/index.html

The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) is for the African-American organizations

Thanks DST! I don't know why I can't keep them straight! (I guess since my GLO isn't affiliated w/ either, it makes it more difficult http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif )

Root of Panhellenic:

Pan - meaning "all" or "encompassing"

Hellenic - refering to Hellenes or the Hellenic Culture, another name for Greek.

Therefore, Panhellenic means all-Greek. It is used to signify the organization or councils that supervise Greek organizations, usually sororities, on a campus.

The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) is made up of 26 national sorority member groups. <A HREF="http://www.greeklife.org/npc]http://www.greeklife.org/npc[/URL" TARGET=_blank>

The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) is made up of 9 historically Black fraternities and sororities. [URL=http://www.nphc.org]http://www.nphc.org</A>

The National InterFraternity Council (NIC)oversees the 66+ member fraternities. There are members of the NIC that also belong to the NPHC. IN addition, there is some cross over for some of the Latino groups. http://www.nicindy.org

The Latino organizations have tried on at least 2 separate occasions that I know to form national councils. Unfortunately the infighting between the organizations causes many problems and the groups can't seem to bond together for common interest.

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Fraternally,
Barbara
Zeta Tau Alpha Alumna

If you have to go around telling everyone you're in charge you're not much of a leader.




[This message has been edited by PnguinTrax (edited January 15, 2000).]