a campus where greek life is forbidden
 

Does your greek organization operate on a campus where greek life is forbidden.

If so, what greek org. are you affiliated with? And how do you operate. Rush, Initiations, Meetings, Alumni, etc.

Any feed back will be greatly appreciated.





http://mxdke.org/alum/Alum%20Pages/history.html

OK, I'll bite....how can you have a Greek org on a campus where Greeks are forbidden? Are you saying the campus/administration aren't supportive? Or the school says no Greeks, but you are on campus anyway (allowed of course) and functioning as close to normal as possible?

Can you clarify?

Ehh, this might not be what you are looking for, but I'll take a stab. When all of the current groups at Otterbein were founded, Greek Life was outlawed. So instead of using greek letters, the groups were "clubs". Epsilon Kappa Tau was the Arbutus club (their flower), Tau Delta was Tomo Dachi Club (hint hint, look at the letters...), Lambda Gamma Epsilon was Kings (the hall they were founded in and the name they use the most). Kappa Phi Omega was the Onyx club (one of their colors and their jewel), Sigma Alpha Tau was the Owls Club (they still use an Owl lavalier more than their letters), Theta Nu was the Greenwhich Girls, t TEM was the Talisman, Pi Kappa Phi was Country Club, and Sigma Delta Phi combined with another org after WW2 to form Sigma Delta Phi (after almost being absorbed by Delta Sigma Phi, their original letter combination, which interfered with the national org).

They opperated as "societies" and "clubs" that served the same purposes and functions as sororities and fraternities, just without the letters. It wasn't breaking the rules, just bending them. Eventually the ban was lifted, and almost every group took letters. Mine was one of the last groups to "letter up" as it were. Every group has maintained a lot from their original founding. The nicknames are still used a lot (Kings, Sphinx, Country Club, etc.). The clubs grew so large and so influential on campus and in campus government that they forced the administration to recognize their presence and sanction their functions. Until then, recruitment had been done by private invitation by individual members, and then moved to a more open atmosphere.

UMass Lowell
 

UMass Lowell does not recognize Greek life after some sort of serious hazing incident years ago (don't know the exact history). They do have functioning greek chapters that are chartered by national organizations, however (there might be some locals as well...can't remember). From my knowledge, they cannot advertise on campus nor reserve campus space for their organization, so they use city facilities, houses, churches, etc.

PsychTau

Greek Life at Long Beach state is here but within the past year three house have been romoved. Our house TKE was kicked off campus for retard people who were romoved from our chapter, yet our national organization as a whole still respect our chapter and we still have a charter. Many people feel our campus is getting to the point were they are not going to allow greek life bc they have a great amount of rules

I origanally posted because I am a member of a dke chapter that is at a school where membership in a fraternity/sorority is grounds for expulsion. We operate like an underground secret society in many respects. Though, I must say, much of our prominence has been due to our mystique of secrecy we have held on campus. Currently we are chartered through the city where our college is located to bypass any legal issues with the college.

Since our chapter is still young, I hoped to start this post to see how other similar chapters operated.

Thanks for the input.

What feedback did you get from SGA, etc. when they decided not to recognize you as an organization? And are you addressing that feedback/concerns they had?

PsychTau

There are two universitites here that does not allow greek organizations on campus, but I do know 2 students that attend there who are greek - both made through city-wide undergraduate chapters.

Deke4life -- By saying that you are "at a school where membership in a fraternity/sorority is grounds for expulsion," you seem to be describing a true underground chapter rather than just a chapter that is operating without SGA or IFC recognition. I am assuming you have to maintain some degree of secrecy regarding your membership so as to avoid disciplinary action by the school administration?

Unfortunately for you as you seek to find out how similar chapters operate, I doubt you'll find many similar chapters. It is not uncommon for chapters to operate openly without university approval. But true underground, or sub rosa, chapters, which were very common once upon a time, are not so common any more.

I could be quite wrong, but my observation has led me to believe that your fraternity has as much, if not more, experience with sub rosa chapters as anyone these days. I seem to recall one or two sub rosa Deke chapters in New England in the last decade or so.

In any event, good luck!

To answer your questions:

We are chartered through the city as an official organization of the Chamber. By doing this we "somewhat legally" claim to not be a college organization therefore removing us from threat of expulsion under their rules (its hard to regulate organizations chartered outside of the college). Although, the college still comes after us frequently.

Of course, we did all of this only after being denied by the student senate (even our guys strategically voted no) and administration, but nothing was going to stop us from going underground. DKE Headquarters knew of our unique situation from the begining and has been more than supportive. And of course, the mystique of secrecy has merely perpetuated our prominence and the bonds within our chapter.

And as we are such a young chapter (only 4 years old) I am curious to see how other chapters have progressed, hence this post.

Thanks again for your info.

I don't see how chartering through the city removes the threat of expulsion. If anything it confirms that you are operating and if the school really wanted to they probably would go after you.

I think the threat of expulsion is just a bluff. My school makes the same threats to every organization that operates underground but they have never done anything. According to everything I have read, I dont think the school can do anything to you just for operating unless you are at a private school.

Is your school public or private?

Our school is Private. And, of course, that is what many of those in administration(not all participate in the witch-hunt though) use as an argument that they still have some control over us.

Because it makes them technically not a college organization. Theoretically anyone could find them through the Chamber of Commerce and ask to join (but this probably won't happen).

If you are at a private school then I think the school can do whatever they want.

I read an article but I cant find it. It was about a DKE lawsuit vs a private school( Bowdoin I think) and the judge ruled that a private school could prohibit fraternities but a public school could not.

Our argument is that the College cant expell us for being an organization that is in "no way affiliated with the school." As far as any one else knows (non dekes) we meet off campus, we initiate off campus, we do everything off campus and we want nothing to do with the college. Officially that is>

Admitedly though, our argument is not perfect, although good enough.

Theoretically we could consider candidates for admission outside of our college (which we also use in our argument), but somehow I dont see that hapening.