No School Affiliation
 

I wondering what people think about a Greek Life with no affiliation with a school. I realize that fraternities and sororities were started around college campuses and all, but what are the benefits?

I question the way my school handles Greek Life. They seem to be so afraid of any incidents that at even the most mild "problem" they impose extremely harsh punishments. I realize that I'm being mildly vague, but I'd rather have people consider their own situations.

Could a Greek Organization exist without the input of a university? The university offers an Inter-fraternal Organization and provides a way to coordinate rush, but suppose a group of Greek organizations formed an IFC off campus and coordinated rush by themselves?

Two of the largest fraternities at Texas are not apart of the IFC. They were kicked off for whatever reason and were able to maintain a healthy chapter. There really isn't any incentive to be apart of IFC here because they don't offer anything besides strict rules and harsh punishments.

I'm not trying to change the focus of this post, but I have a question, do greek fraternal councils at other schools have more pros than cons or are they typically the same throughout the country, imposing rules and punishments with no benefit?

Santa Clara U does just this. Search under "Santa Clara" and there should be some threads on it.

Georgetown also has two NIC organizations that function without the school.

Hmmm, this reminds me of a situation from when I was in undergrad. One of the NIC chapters on campus pledged guys who were NOT students at our school, but at community college that was also in town. When I questioned the validity of their actions, I was told (by a pledge, not an active) that their charter was city-wide and not just with the university.

Chapters do under the table bids like this all of the time.....it really isn't that out of the ordinary. I know of a decent amount of guys that go to St. Edwards down here in Austin that are in good fraternities at UT. Usually it only involved guys that are close to actives in the chapter though, really good friends or perhaps brothers.

If you're at a public school, the school can no more stop you from joining an off campus fraternity than they can stop you from attending a certain church, joining the Lion's Club, etc. As far as the purpose of the organization though -- I'd have to wonder. I guess you could exist apart from the school, but really, what would be the point? I really think that my organization is so intertwined with the workings of the school that the two are difficult to separate.

In response to the last two posters, how are they covered by the National?

Are they actual National members and if so how are they on the rolls of said GLO?

If they are not on National Rolls, then they are not actual members except by the local chapter. They are non existent in the National sense.

TKE did it on my campus for several years before they were re-recognized. I don't really know how their HQ handles this.

I don't really don't care how they go about it doing it. I don't think its a big deal.