at my school, we place a LOT of emphasis on 'greek families'...so when we have bigs or littles from a fraternity, it's really so we can add them to our greek family tree
i made my big bro a kite and he made me a paddle...which is nice because i don't have one from my own chapter. i don't get to wear his letters or anything like that, he didn't order clothes for me, but bigs and littles between sororities and fraternities is one of the most time-honored tradition here to improve relationships between houses...that and sweetheart weeks.
i understand that the system has been abused a lot in the past and on other campuses, but we've never had that problem...neither have any of our advisers.