All locals going national at once
 

At the risk of irritating or boring those who seem to want only titillating tales of sorority rush, this story which I uncovered may be of interest to some of you:

At most institutions national fraternities and sororities have been established intermittently as the need arises. However, at a few major universities a system of local groups had existed and a decision was made to allow them to seek national affiliation all at the same time. This process can best be correlated to mating season in some animal species, or perhaps the N.F.L. draft. It would have been fun to be a Greek Advisor at such time to witness the procedure. Two institutions are especially interesting.

University of Houston began as a junior college in 1927 and evolved into a four year institution in 1934. After World War II the University exploded in size and prominence. Placing a chapter at a major university in the state's largest city was attractive to a large number of fraternities and sororities, especially those with a strong presence in Texas. Plus the bonus of an already established group with alumni is always desirable to any national organization.

There were eight local sororities, the oldest dating from 1939. Following a process of intense lobbying and presentations by national organizations, and equally intensive selling themselves by the local groups, finally resulted in selections being made of a national affiliation for each sorority. The victors were Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Delta Pi, Alpha Phi, Chi Omega, Delta Gamma, Delta Zeta, Phi Mu and Zeta Tau Alpha. All installed their chapters on February 4, 1956, in what surely has to be one of the more unique occurences in sorority history.

Fourteen men's social groups existed, the oldest formed in 1945. Their process was similar to the sororities, but with twice the participants and much more aggresiveness. Four successful groups, Pi Kappa Alpha, Pi Kappa Phi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Phi Epsilon, chartered the same days as the sororities. During the next twelve months, Phi Epsilon Pi, Sigma Chi, Sigma Nu, Tau Kappa Epsilon, Delta Chi, Delta Sigma Phi, Kappa Alpha, Phi Kappa Theta, Phi Sigma Kappa and Lambda Chi Alpha also installed chapters.

The opening of San Jose State University to national organizations was literally a "gold rush." Adding a chapter in the prosperous Bay Area of California was a high priority for almost every national fraternity and sorority. Especially attractive in this case was the age of the groups and the many alumni they had.

The oldest of the eight sororities had been founded in 1898. Attracting the oldest and strongest groups were Alpha Phi, Kappa Alpha Theta and Kappa Kappa Gamma. On February 6, 1948, the Thetas were the first to install on campus. Others successful at chartering groups later in the year were Delta Gamma, Chi Omega, Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Omicron Pi and Gamma Phi Beta. Delta Zeta and Sigma Kappa organized colonies and also installed chapters during 1948.

The fraternity selection process was less organized and more drawn out in time. There were eleven groups, the oldest founded in 1926. The first to install was Sigma Alpha Epsilon in November 1947. Alpha Tau Omega, Delta Upsilon and SAE took the oldest and strongest locals. The remaining groups to install were Theta Chi, Phi Sigma Kappa and Kappa Alpha in 1948, followed by Pi Kappa Alpha, Lambda Chi Alpha, Sigma Nu, Theta Xi and Sigma Chi during the next two years. Chartering from colonies were Delta Sigma Phi and Sigma Pi.

The above material was obtained from the Wilson Heller papers, yearbooks from the two instititions, plus several fraternity and sorority histories.

Love it! Keep 'em comin' oldu!


In recent years, Furman & Wake Forest come to mind. W&L began their system with 3 groups, but they began from the ground up with no locals.

When is your book coming out and where do I sign up?

Who needs Baird's when you have oldu? ;)

Great stuff, keep it coming!

Isn't there a huge archive at Urbana-Champaign? How about we send someone (oldu?) to research this stuff!

Wow! I had no idea San Jose State used to have so many NPCs! They only have 4 now (I believe). I soooo wish the Kappa chapter was still alive!

Great info. I know that within the last 10 years or so both Valpo and John Carroll have had all their local sororities go national at once. It does seem like it would be a feeding frenzy!

It's as competitive as it gets in NPC -- especially if it's a "top tier" campus!

Just curious, how does it work exactly? I know that "normally" three groups present and then one is chosen. If say 4 groups are going national at once, does each group get three different national presentations or are x number of national groups chosen to present and then the four groups pick from those?

Seems like I recall at Wake (anyone else jump in here with info!) -- let's say there were 6 locals. I believe 6 NPC groups presented to each group. Then, it was like bid matching -- the locals ranked their top 3 and the NPCs ranked their top 3.

That's the way I recall for the other campuses too.

Correct, JCU was just a few years ago.

I believe all the local sororities also went (inter)national at Pepperdine in the mid 90's.

I remember when all the Baylor sororities went national at once in the seventies. Feeding frenzy!

At the school where I teach, all the locals except 1 went national at once, plus they added another one a couple of years later.

I wonder if Sewanee could be next? They have one NPC and several locals.

Davidson has national fraternities but no women's GLOs. The women have eating houses that could be absorbed by the NPC groups. They just appointed a new president this summer so perhaps he will be more amenable than previous campus administrators.