National sororities that pioneered on a campus
 

In an accompanying thread I listed the number of institutions and the era in which national sororities were introduced. I thought it would be interesting to see which sororities they were.

By 1900 the sororities with the largest number of chapters which were the first on campus are obviously the oldest groups:

Pi Beta Phi, 24
Kappa Alpha Theta, 20
Kappa Kappa Gamma, 20
Delta Gamma, 12
Chi Omega, 7
Alpha Omicron Pi, 2
Alpha Phi, 2
Delta Delta Delta, 2

A half century later the pattern changed and some of the older groups became much more conservative and newer groups became more aggressive at introducing sorority life at new institutions. The groups with the most pioneer chapters by 1950 were:

Chi Omega, 40
Pi Beta Phi, 37
Sigma Sigma Sigma, 29
Kappa Alpha Theta, 27
Alpha Kappa Alpha, 24
Kappa Kappa Gamma, 22
Delta Sigma Theta, 20
Delta Sigma Epsilon, 17
Kappa Delta, 17
Alpha Sigma Alpha, 15
Delta Gamma, 14
Zeta Phi Beta, 13
Alpha Delta Pi, 12
Pi Kappa Sigma, 12
Alpha Xi Delta, 10

Move forward to today and the list reshuffles even more. It is interesting that some groups have sought out new territory, while some other older and larger groups have tended to wait until a Greek system is well established before placing a chapter. As of today the chapters which were the pioneer sorority on campus are as follows:

Chi Omega, 62
Delta Zeta, 62
Sigma Sigma Sigma, 50
Alpha Xi Delta, 41
Delta Sigma Theta, 41
Kappa Alpha Theta, 41
Pi Beta Phi, 41
Phi Mu, 41
Alpha Kappa Alpha, 39
Kappa Delta, 37
Kappa Kappa Gamma, 33
Alpha Sigma Tau, 32
Alpha Delta Pi, 31
Zeta Tau Alpha, 29
Delta Gamma, 28
Gamma Phi Beta, 28
Alpha Phi, 27
Alpha Sigma Alpha, 26
Phi Sigma Sigma, 25
Sigma Kappa, 24
Theta Phi Alpha, 23
Alpha Omicron Pi, 21
Delta Delta Delta, 21
Delta Phi Epsilon, 21
Zeta Phi Beta, 21
Delta Sigma Epsilon, 18
Alpha Chi Omega, 14
Alpha Gamma Delta, 14
Sigma Gamma Rho, 14
Pi Kappa Sigma, 13
Alpha Epsilon Phi, 10
Beta Sigma Omicron, 9
Sigma Delta Tau, 6

Gamma Phi Beta was VERY conservative regarding expansion throughout the early part of its history.

Yay for inclusion. :)

And I mean that sincerely, without even a hint of snark.

oldu, I'm having a special moment and just want to make sure I understand. Do the numbers represent the number of pioneer chapters chartered by the years you mentioned? And by pioneer you mean being the first sorority on that campus?

:) That's interesting info. Thanks.

That's the way I took it, i.e. we have 41 chapters that were the first sorority to be chartered on a college campus. Although now that I think about it that doesn't sound right unless our context is BGLOs.

In any case, thanks for the inclusion oldu.

Thanks for the nice response. Yes, on the list by decade that represents the number of new institutions where national sororities were introduced, and the accompanying list names the sorority involved. I don't have the list of each sorority by decade. What I did was complicated enough. I still love you despite your talking to me rude sometimes.

Wow.

But now you know that our rudeness is not life threatening. :D

Thanks for the explanation. :)

I found out who had been PMing you. http://tech.msn.com/news/articlepcw....1895&GT1=40000
I hope GC can heal now. ;)

Very interesting Oldu! Thanks for the info! :)

Question- how did you determine who was first? The reason I'm asking is because the SUNY system closed all national sororities and fraternities at one point, and then allowed them to return in, I think, the 90's. So a group that may have not been the first national originally, may have been when the campuses re-opened to nationals, and vice versa.

How are the NPHC chapters counted? Is it by any sorority or by council? For example, if at State U, Kappa Kappa Gamma was the first NPC chartered in 1924, and Delta Sigma Theta was the first NPHC chartered in 1925, does only Kappa count as first (sororities overall)? Or do they both count in their respective categories?

The first chapter to install is listed as the first, no matter whether NPHC or NPC. As in the case of SUNY campuses and others where the system closed down, the original one that pioneered is listed, and then when the campus re-opened the first to re-install is listed as another first. In many cases, several groups installed the same year but I tried to find the one that actually installed their chapter first. There maybe as many as 20 cases when that could not be determined, and in that case more than one group is listed. As in every study or poll, there is a margin of error of some minor percent but I doubt that any group is off by more than one or at most two. Believe me, it wasn't an easy task but we have the actual date of nearly 90% of the first charterings.

Don't forget Kappa Delta was 1st at Longwood in 1897. I am also assuming you are looking schools that still have GLO's not schools where GLO's once were but no longer on a campus.

This is very interesting. I love history.

Honestly, I'm just not seeing what's so interesting about this. I guess I should stay out of your threads from now on, oldu. Once you've posted all possible scenarios I'm sure I'll hear who "the winner" is and when the parade is scheduled. :rolleyes: