[damasa]

Not to mention, it may not always be the local that is "imitating" the national so to speak. Ask 33girl about this, there was a thread about it way way back which involved a local sorority at a UW school which was founded a few years before her national. There were many similarities, a lot ot the time it just may be coincidental. There are only so many colors and flowers and mascots that you can choose from, you know? Unless we start making our own up like "The Monkey Bird" or something.

[edit]
Oddly enough, my local shares many similarities with our university. When we broke away from the national we were part of many years ago, the members didn't really know what to do with all this. We have the same mascot as our university (panther), similar colors (old gold and black), the university colors are yellow and black, and we share a few other similar things.