This is from 2002 but thought was interesting.
It's Greek to Me
September 6, 2002
With September here, and students returning to college, a lot of terms begin to rise on the Lycos search logs. One of those staples of college life is Greek life, and Lycos gets a fair number of searches for fraternities and sororities. We decided to see which were the most popular with our users.
Here are the top 20 Greek organizations searched on Lycos. We combined searches from the first six months of 2002 with searches from the last two weeks, since students returned to school. As you'll see later in this article, the top eight terms make a strong statement:
1)
Alpha Kappa Alpha
2)
Delta Sigma Theta
3)
Omega Psi Phi
4)
Kappa Alpha Psi
5)
Zeta Phi Beta
6)
Alpha Phi Alpha
7)
Phi Beta Sigma
8)
Sigma Gamma Rho
9)
Phi Delta Kappa
10)
Sigma Phi Epsilon
11)
Phi Beta Kappa
12)
Phi Theta Kappa
13)
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
14)
Chi Omega
15)
Pi Kappa Alpha
16)
Sigma Chi
17)
Kappa Kappa Gamma
18)
Sigma Theta Tau
19)
Kappa Alpha Theta
20t)
Delta Zeta
20t)
Zeta Tau Alpha
Not all of these organizations are conventional fraternities. Phi Beta Kappa, of course, is a student honor society, and Phi Theta Kappa is a similar society for students at two-year colleges. Phi Delta Kappa is an professional society for teachers, while Sigma Theta Tau is a professional society for nurses.
The remaining organizations are split pretty evenly between the men and the women, with eight fraternities and nine sororities (including the two tied for #20). But what really stands out is that the top eight most-searched Greek organizations are all historically African-American, led by the sororities Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta (with almost, but not quite, the same number of searches).
The top two black sororities get more than 10 times the number of searches as the top "conventional" sorority, Chi Omega. The difference is a bit less pronounced for the men, but Omega Psi Phi gets about four times as many searches as the top "conventional" frat, Sigma Phi Epsilon.
Many readers will find this surprising, but delving deeper into the culture of these organizations shows why they get so many searches. Black Greek life holds a very important place in African-American history. One hundred years ago, Americans of European ancestry had plenty of lodges, societies, and professional unions to connect them, many of which dated back to before 1776. But African-Americans did not -- so fraternities and sororities were some of the strongest, earliest national African-American organizations, dedicated to community service and political activism as well as life on and off campus.
That strength has continued to the present day. The alumni chapters of black Greek organizations are much more active than those of corresponding "conventional" fraternities. A majority of members consider themselves active even after graduation, with up to 60 percent of active membership made up of alumni.
And most historical African-American leaders were members of these organizations. The most famous is Martin Luther King Jr., who gets a
whole section on the Alpha Phi Alpha website dedicated to building an MLK memorial.
Modernity brings changes, of course. Now "conventional" fraternities are open to all races, and so are historically black fraternities. Like MLK, former Vice-President Hubert H. Humphrey was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha.
Of course, fraternities aren't the only searches that involve Greek letters. Check out today's bonus list to the right for more searches that are Greek to me.
MONDAY: Speaking of Greek, the latest health fad has a Greek tinge to it.
http://50.lycos.com/090602.asp (Source)
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