[irishpipes]

Bama Dad DZ-

There are several old threads about "southern" sororities. It is really kind of silly because there is no definition of what a southern sorority is. Is it where you were founded, are headquartered, have the most chapters? For example, AOII was founded in New York City (like the Pace picante commercials) but we are frequently thought of as southern. One of our 4 founders was from New Orleans, and went to college at Barnard/Columbia in NYC after attending Sophie Newcomb/Tulane briefly. Our headquarters is in Nashville and most of our largest and most successful chapters are in the south, including our oldest at the University of Tennessee. That being said, we are not exclusively southern, and to say so would be disrespectful to our wonderful chapters in other parts of the US and Canada.

I think DZ and Alpha Chi Omega are good examples of how it is difficult to define a southern sorority. Both of these groups have some wonderful chapters in the south, but would probably not be thought of as southern sororities for whatever arbitrary reason. But, despite lacking "traditions" and whatever else was mentioned as being so important, DZ had a great colonization at Florida a couple of years ago, and Alpha Chi has very competitive chapters in the SEC and other southern schools. Others like Chi O and Kappa are frequently mentioned as southern but really have a strong presence everywhere. It really just varies from campus to campus and state to state. I think if a person had attended say Georgia rather than LSU, for example, he would have a totally different perception of what sororities are "southern." Like the poster who thinks of Phi Mu and Theta as more southern than AOII and therefore a better fit for Arkansas - actually AOII has active chapters at 9 SEC schools - more than Phi Mu (8) or Theta (7). But, in his opinion they are more "southern" - so you see it is just personal opinion. Phi Mu and Theta are both wonderful organizations, and of course the number of chapters in the SEC is only one example of a way of rationalizing. As long as your daughter is happy, it doesn't really matter if her sorority os "southern" or not.