Chapter Designations

[KSUViolet06]

Tri Sigma goes in Greek alphabetical order through Psi, then starts over again with Alpha Alpha to Alpha Psi, Beta Alpha to Beta Psi, and so on. Since Omega chapter is reserved to members who pass on, we do not use Omega in our chapter designations.

[SAEalumnus]

SAE chapters are designated by state and greek initial(s). The first chapter was Alabama Mu, with mu chosen to represent our 'mother' chapter. The next several followed in order of the Greek alphabet (Tennessee Nu, North Carolina Xi, etc.).

Some chapter designations were taken from the original local society to receive the charter (eg. New York Sigma-Phi at Bard College), or chosen to represent the institution (eg. Massachusetts Iota-Tau at M.I.T.).

Eventually the current system was developed whereby the first chapter chartered in a given state is [State] Alpha, then [State] Beta, and eventually [State] Alpha-Alpha, etc.

Each individual chapter is referred to as a Chapter Collegiate. Upon graduation, alumni in good standing are designated as members of the Chapter Alumnus, those not in good standing as members of the Chapter Quiescent, and deceased Brothers as members of the Chapter Eternal.

[irishpipes]

I know there is an old, old thread about this, but I am not good at the search function.

AOII does not use any order. We allow our colonies to select their own designation. The designation must also then stand for the chapter sub-motto. My chapter at the University of Illinois wanted to use Iota for Illinois, so they chose the sub-motto iso fore which is Greek for sharing equal burdens. Some use an English sub-motto, for example Alpha Gamma's is "always genuine" and Tau Delta's is "true to duty."

Most of our oldest chapters are our single-lettered ones, but those are not in order, and actually some of our oldest 24 chose double-letter designations, and the single letter "Mu" was never used to name a chapter. So in order of founding, our oldest chapters are:

Alpha (Barnard/Columbia)
Pi (Sophie Newcomb/Tulane)
Nu (NYU)
Omicron (Tennessee)
Kappa (Randolph-Macon Women's College)
Zeta (Nebraska)
Sigma (Cal-Berkeley)
Theta (DePauw)
Beta (Brown)
Delta (Tufts)
Gamma (Maine)
Epsilon (Cornell)
Rho (Northwestern)
Lambda (Stanford)
Iota (Illinois)
Tau (Minnesota)
Chi (Syracuse)
Upsilon (Washington)
Nu Kappa (Southern Methodist)
Beta Phi (Indiana)
Eta (Wisonsin)
Alpha Phi (Montana State)
Nu Omicron (Vanderbilt)
Psi (Penn)
Phi (Kansas)
Omega (Miami Ohio)
Omicron Pi (Michigan)
Alpha Sigma (Oregon)
Xi (Oklahoma)

[Emory Kappa]

AOII's naming is very interesting!

Kappa is alphabetical also, though it did not have an Alpha Alpha, Alpha Beta, Alpha Gamma series. The order goes straight from single letters double letters beginning with Beta.

I should probably dig out my history book to find out why!

[AGDee]

Alpha Gam's naming convention is a little complicated. The first 24 chapters were in order of installation. I'm pasting the rest from a post by greeklawgirl from a couple years ago:

At the 1909 convention, Grand Council decided to create four provinces: Alpha in the Northeast, Gamma in the Southeast, Beta in the Midwest, and Delta in the West. Sometime after 1909 but before 1922, Epsilon Province was created to govern the lower Midwest.

After Omega chapter was chartered in 1922, all chapters thereafter were named by the province that they were in, NOT in Greek alphabetical order. For instance:

While Alpha Zeta chapter was founded in 1930, Delta Alpha chapter was founded in 1923. Epsilon Alpha was founded in 1922.

** Back to me now: So, all chapters in the Northeast begin with Alpha. When they got to Alpha Omega, they went to Zeta's. So Northeast chapters are Alpha, Zeta, Lambda,

Midwest: Beta, Eta, Mu

South: Gamma, Theta, Nu

West: Delta, Iota, Xi

Lower Midwest: Epsilon, Kappa, Omicron

Of course, we haven't reached all of those yet, but that is how they are figured out. Our newest chapter is Theta Chi at Virginia Tech.

Trying to keep them straight can be tough sometimes. When my duties were extended to include oversight of the whole northeast, I got Zeta Eta, Zeta Theta, Zeta Beta.. trying to keep them straight took a while.

[Kevin]

There's only one chapter whose name starts with "Alpha." That's the Alpha Chapter (VMI). Also, no chapter uses the "Omega" letter.

We go through the greek alphabet, then on to the double letters starting with Beta Alpha going to Beta Psi, then to Gamma Alpha, etc.

[Elephant Walk]

I wish we did ours like the fiji's do it..

they use the greek letters to write the name (sorry that was confusing

For example, Univ of Oklahoma, in Norman is:
Nu Omicron (Norman Oklahoma)

University of Arkansas in Fayetteville is:
Phi Alpha (Fayetteville, Arkansas)

I thought it was kind of clever.

[ISUKappa]

Originally Posted by Emory Kappa

AOII's naming is very interesting!

Kappa is alphabetical also, though it did not have an Alpha Alpha, Alpha Beta, Alpha Gamma series. The order goes straight from single letters double letters beginning with Beta.

I should probably dig out my history book to find out why!

To add on to this, the designations of some early chapters that closed after only a few years were then used for chapters that opened in the early 1880s. After the 1890 convention, I believe, it was decided those chapters would have the letter "Beta" preceeding the original chapter name to designate they were the second chapter of that letter (does that make any sense?)

So when the chapter at Iowa opened in 1882 they were originally known as the Zeta chapter, but after 1890, they became the Beta Zeta chapter because they were the second chapter to use the letter Zeta, and that is how they are known today. So there are some two-letter chapters that are actually older than some single letter chapters.

[AOII*Azra-elle]

Originally Posted by irishpipes

I know there is an old, old thread about this, but I am not good at the search function.

AOII does not use any order. We allow our colonies to select their own designation. The desgnation must also then stand for the chapter sub-motto. My chapter at the University of Illinois wanted to use Iota for Illinois, so they chose the sub-motto iso fore which is Greek for sharing equal burdens. Some use an English sub-motto, for example Alpha Gamma's is "always genuine" amd Tau Delta's is "true to duty."

Most of our oldest chapters are our single-lettered ones, but those are not in order, and actually some of our oldest 24 chose double-letter designations, and the single letter "Mu" was never used to name a chapter. So in order of founding, our oldest chapters are:

Alpha (Barnard/Columbia)
Pi (Sophie Newcomb/Tulane)
Nu (NYU)
Omicron (Tennessee)
Kappa (Randolph-Macon Women's College)
Zeta (Nebraska)
Sigma (Cal-Berkeley)
Theta (DePauw)
Beta (Brown)
Delta (Tufts)
Gamma (Maine)
Epsilon (Cornell)
Rho (Northwestern)
Lambda (Stanford)
Iota (Illinois)
Tau (Minnesota)
Chi (Syracuse)
Upsilon (Washington)
Nu Kappa (Southern Methodist)
Beta Phi (Indiana)
Eta (Wisonsin)
Alpha Phi (Montana State)
Nu Omicron (Vanderbilt)
Psi (Penn)
Phi (Kansas)
Omega (Miami Ohio)
Omicron Pi (Michigan)
Alpha Sigma (Oregon)
Xi (Oklahoma)

This is true. My collegiate chapter was at U. of Northern Colorado. We called ourselves Epsilon Gamma. It stood for Ever Giving, Ever Growing. There is a secret meaning, but only us EG's know what it is!