Local names for national organizations?
 

Did your campus have any local nicknames for national organizations?

For example, at W&L, Sigma Phi Epsilon wasn't usually called SigEp, but "SPE." (I've heard this is common in the south?). I hardly heard anyone ever call them SigEp.

No one at W&L ever called Pi Kappa Alpha "Pike" either. They always said "Pika."

The one that was weirdest is that Pi Kappa Phi was NEVER called Pi Kapp. It was called "Pi Phi." :confused: This was weird because Pi Beta Phi was also on campus (my chapter!). So everyone would refer to them as "girl Pi Phi" and "guy" Pi Phi." I'm not even kidding about that.

The guys at Pi Kappa Phi said that it was supposedly based on some crazy thing they did long ago, the national organization told them they no longer had the right to be called "Pi Kap" but had to be called "Pi Phi" as punishment. The story went that the amount of time they had to be called "Pi Phi" had already expired but the name had just stuck. The whole thing doesn't really ring true to me (why would their nationals decree such a thing?) and sounds like an urban legend to me.

If I had to guess why it was, I think it's more likely that Pi Kappa Phi had a distinctive name to distinguish it from Phi Kappa Sigma, which was usually called "Phi Kap" and not "the Skulls." (Skulls was used occasionally but Phi Kap was far more common.) Because "Pi Kap" and "Phi Kap" sound alike sort of, and for years there were no women at W&L and thus no reason to worry about getting confused with Pi Beta Phi. (W&L went co-ed in '85, sororities came in '89, and Pi Phi came in '92). But who knows if my guess is correct?

Anyway, do you know of other instances of things like this happening on your campus with unusual or nonstandard nicknames for orgs?

Our Epsilon Epsilon chapter at Emporia uses the apple as a mascot and goes by the nickname Apples.

Hmmmm.... Interesting! We always called the Pi Kappa Phi's at my campus, Pi Kapp!

Yeah, W&L is the only time I've ever heard of Pi Kappa Phi being called "Pi Phi" for the obvious reason of confusion with Pi Beta Phi, which goes by "Pi Phi" nationally.

I'm actually really curious to see if this has happened anywhere else on other campuses.

Honestly, it always sort of annoyed me (as a Pi BETA Phi) that they used that nickname, but it wasn't exactly their fault since everyone on campus used that name and called them that, and had apparently done so for years. And we couldn't exactly just go around telling everyone not to call them that either, without looking petty/uptight.

That's really interesting. Were they formally a local sorority that was colonized by ASA or did they just develop that local tradition over time?

I know that in some national sororities many chapters have local mascots, but I've never heard of them being called by the name of he local mascot before. Thanks for posting that.

I don't think that they were originally a local. It's a name that they've had forever and just go by. Their website gives the following possible reasons for it:
1) Apple sounds like Alpha if you don't know the Greek alphabet
2) ASA was originally founded as a teachers' sorority and apples are associated with teachers
3) ASA's are known as the All-American girls on that campus so "as American as apple pie"

cool!

At SMU and SFA, Pi Kappa Alpha was always called Pike; however, at my husband's school (MIT), they are Pika.

The first time he said Pika, I told him he had it wrong. He said I had it wrong. Fifteen years later, he is still wrong. ;)

We definitely say Pike around here. The rest of the fraternities we call by their letters or name.

The only sorority with a real nick name is "DeeGee". The rest are just said or maybe shortened, like Alpha Gam.

National orgs don't have a huge presence on our campus. We have a Theta Chi chapter, and one of my sisters referred to them as "the Thetas." I was like, no, that's Kappa Alpha Theta. It doesn't make as much sense since we don't have a Theta chapter here but...at least I know better!

Another sorority that starts with a Kappa has some old Facebook pictures labeled "Kappas at the beach" or wherever they were. They didn't know KKG was coming over!

At my school, Phi Sigma Kappa is called "Kappa", because our very first sorority was Phi Sigma Sigma so Phi Sig was taken. We haven't needed to worry about conflict with Kappa Kappa Gamma, because even though they did express interest in expansion via letters, when we officially opened they didn't submit a packet.

Our Pi Kappa Alphas are Pikes, our Pi Kappa Phis are Pi Kapps. Our Phi Gamma Deltas are FIJIs and sometimes when people can't read, they're FIGIs (fig-ease) ! I don't think there are any other local nicknames that we have.

ETA: Oh! And our Sigma Phi Epsilons are most DEFINITELY SigEps!

Actually, it's pika (all lowercase). They've been an independent living group, no longer affiliated with Pi Kappa Alpha, for more than 30 years. They are also coed.

LOL - well, that explains it - he's class of '79. He said that the chapter got their charter revoked by nationals because they "initiated" a girl. Don't know if that's true or not, but like I said, he's been wrong before.:rolleyes:

Carnegie Mellon Pi Kappa Alphas were called Pikas when I was in school.

That is so interesting! When I was at Duke we heard about SPE because they had had their charter revoked and went out with a crazy party called "SPE ya later", probably in the early to mid-90's (Duke's website about greek life history is SO wrong!). Then they rechartered my senior year and everyone at Duke wanted to call them SPE and they kept telling us "no, it's SigEp". At the time they said they were doing this to distance their image from the SPEs that had been kicked off a few years earlier!