A question to the NPHC Greeks

[DSTCHAOS]

Is there a central question being addressed?

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally posted by Rain Man
I got more coming next week.

I was going to go to the library today to dig up more but the library is closed for the Labor Day weekend.

LOL.

[Ch2tf]

Originally posted by Tom Earp
I was stating My thoughts only.

But for many years, the HWGLOs and HBGLOs seemed worlds apart for many.

They did not feel comfortable with either, some felt they wanted to start a Greek Organization that they felt at ease with. Dont We all?

None or very many of us felt corret about crossing lines so to speak even though it has and will still be done.

It is just a matter of people feeling at ease with thier group.

Sorry it took me so long to reply, I was on vacation but...

Your point is understood (somewhat). But I urge you to do a little bit more research about the founding of multicultural orgs because many have NOT in fact sprung up because of a lack of the desire to expand by previous existing groups. As well as other orgs, i.e. Latino & Asian orgs. While people may find comfort in what you term as their "own" they were also addressing the needs of a community who's needs and presence were at the time of founding, under-represented.

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally posted by Ch2tf
Your point is understood (somewhat). But I urge you to do a little bit more research about the founding of multicultural orgs because many have NOT in fact sprung up because of a lack of the desire to expand by previous existing groups. As well as other orgs, i.e. Latino & Asian orgs. While people may find comfort in what you term as their "own" they were also addressing the needs of a community who's needs and presence were at the time of founding, under-represented.

Great post.

[Rain Man]

Moving on...

Rho Lambda Pi
- Was a local org
- Founded 11/26/1858 at University of the Pacific
- Merged with Phi Sigma Kappa 12/3/60

Sigma Alpha
- Primary cause of decease: Weak organization
- Founded in 1859 at Roanoke College
- Had 14 chapters
- Disbanded in 1882

Sigma Alpha Theta
- Primary cause of decease: Weak organization
- Founded during the Civil War at an unknown college
- Had 3 chapters
- 2 chapters died out, one joined Delta Tau Delta in 1872 and disbanded in 1895

Sigma Delta Pi
- Primary cause of decease: Weak organization
- Founded in 1858 at Dartmouth College
- Had 3 chapters
- Two chapters died out, leaving Alpha Chapter which joined Beta Theta Pi in 1889.

Sigma Delta Rho
- Primary cause of decease: Internal dissent
- Founded 1/8/21 at Miami University
- Had 9 chapters
- Disagreement developed among its chapters as to the policies of the fraternity. This, accentuated by financial problems brought on by the Great Depression and by the absence of strong leadership, led to disintegration in 1935.
- 3 chapters joined Alpha Kappa Pi
- 1 chapter joined Pi Kappa Phi
- The rest, already threatened with dissolution, gradually disappeared.

Sigma Iota
- Primary cause of decease: Merger with Phi Lambda Alpha (which merged with Phi Iota Alpha)
- Founded in 1904 at Louisiana State University, but became a GLO in 1911.
- Had numerous chapters, including foreign chapters in Belgium, Switzerland, and Guatemala City
- Merged with Phi Lambda Alpha in 1932

Sigma Lambda Pi
- Primary cause of decease: Weak organization
- Founded April 1915 at New York University
- Had 9 chapters
- 3 chapters joined Phi Epsilon Pi
- 1 chapter became a local org and was allowed to retain the fraternity name. The other chapters died out/dissolved.

Sigma Mu Sigma
- Primary cause of decease: Merger with Tau Kappa Epsilon/stringent membership requirements shyed away many prospective members.
- Founded 1921 at Tri-State College
- Had 9 chapters
- Membership requirements included those for admittance to Phi Beta Kappa and having to be a Master Mason, which virtually proved impractical and almost impossible to join. The Phi Beta Kappa requirement was tweaked to require high scholarship record, and the Masonic requirement was tweaked to allow sons and brothers of Masons.
- Became a junior member of NIC in 1928
- Merged with TKE in 1934
- Was partially revived when remnants of the former fraternity merged with Square and Compass recognition society in 1952.

Sigma Omega Psi
- Primary cause of decease: Merger with Alpha Epsilon Pi
- Founded in 1914 at the College of the City of New York
- Had 15 chapters
- Merged with Alpha Epsilon Pi in 1940

[mccoyred]

Originally posted by DSTCHAOS
Is there a central question being addressed?

My understanding is that this thread was revived in response to the question of why the NPHC membership requirements are so 'strict'. I pointed out that the NPHC has had ZERO mergers or local/national chapter conversions, unlike the IFC/NIC/NPC, which shows the rationale for such a 'strict' policy. Rain Man has provided documentation to support that statement even though I believe his initial argument in the other thread was otherwise.

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally posted by mccoyred
My understanding is that this thread was revived in response to the question of why the NPHC membership requirements are so 'strict'. I pointed out that the NPHC has had ZERO mergers or local/national chapter conversions, unlike the IFC/NIC/NPC, which shows the rationale for such a 'strict' policy. Rain Man has provided documentation to support that statement even though I believe his initial argument in the other thread was otherwise.

Your last sentence is why this discussion is mindboggling to me.

[Rain Man]

Almost done with the frats...

Sigma Phi Sigma
- Primary cause of decease: Weak organization, compounded by the Great Depression and World War II
- Founded 1908 at the University of Pennsylvania
- Had 18 chapters
- Growth was not nearly as strong as anticipated at time of founding, having only 18 chapters at the start of the Great Depression and only 4 at the end of WWII.
- Plans to disintegrate began as early as 1941 when 1 chapter joined Sigma Chi and another chapter joining Tau Kappa Epsilon.
- In January 1947, at the 21st grand assembly, the members voted to formally dissolve the organization. As a result, the remaining chapters joined either Phi Sigma Kappa, Tau Kappa Epsilon, or Phi Kappa Psi. However, one chapter announced it would continue as a local org and retain the name Sigma Phi Sigma, but that org lasted for only a short time.

Sigma Tau Pi
- Primary cause of decease: Merger with Alpha Epsilon Pi
- Founded in 1918 at U. of Pa.
- Had 8 chapters
- Merged with AEPi in March 1947

Sigma Zeta
- Primary cause of decease: Weak organization
- Founded at U. of Pa. at an unknown date
- It may have established a few other chapters before it disbanded in February 1933, other fraternities absorbing its chapters.

Square and Compass
- Primary cause of decease: Merger with Sigma Mu Sigma
- Founded 1917 at Washington and Lee University
- Had 57 chapters or "squares"
- Like Sigma Mu Sigma, was a Masonic-based org
- Merged with Sigma Mu Sigma on August 3, 1952.

Tau Delta Phi
- Primary cause of decease: Declining membership(?)
- Founded 6/22/10 at the College of the City of New York
- Had 55 chapters
- Baird's Manual does not indicate that the org either formally dissolved or that it merged with another GLO, only that "the fraternity continued a slow but steady decline until about 1973 when no active chapters were known to exist" (the chapter roll indicates two chapters starting in 1975, one at Cooper Union, the other at P.I.N.Y. - Farmington, thus adding to the confusion).

Theta Alpha
- Primary cause of decease: Merger with Delta Sigma Lambda
- Founded 2/22/09 at Syracuse University
- Had 4 chapters
- Merged with Delta Sigma Lambda (see listing) in 1933, which had disintegrated by 1937.

Theta Kappa Nu
- Primary cause of decease: Merger with Lambda Chi Alpha
- Founded 6/9/24 at a meeting held in Springfield, Mo. via a merger of 9 GLOs.
- Had 50 chapters
- Merged with Lambda Chi Alpha 10/11/39.

Theta Kappa Phi
- Primary cause of decease: Still in existence in a sense; merged with Phi Kappa 4/29/59 to become what is now Phi Kappa Theta
- Founded in 1914 at Lehigh University
- Had 23 chapters and 2 colonies.

Theta Nu Epsilon
- Primary cause of decease: Weak/poorly governed organization
- Founded at Wesleyan University in 1870.
- Its organization was such a disorganized mess and poor administration, its fate would be too lengthy to discuss here. Suffice it to say, however, for the most part, its chapters either went inactive or joined other GLOs.

Theta Upsilon Omega
- Primary cause of decease: Merger with Sigma Phi Epsilon
- Founded 12/1/23 at the NIC in New York via a merger of 13 GLOS.
- Merged with Sigma Phi Epsilon in the spring of 1938.

W.W.W. (aka Rainbow)
- Primary cause of decease: Merger with Delta Tau Delta
- Founded in 1849 at the University of Mississippi
- Had about 13 chapters
- Merged with Delta Tau Delta in 1886.
- 2 chapters joined Phi Delta Theta, one disbanded, its members joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon

Zeta Phi
- Primary cause of decease: Weak organization
- Founded 11/7/1870 at the University of Missouri
- Had 3 chapters
- 1 dissolved, 1 surrendered its charter in 1886 to join FIJI, one joined Beta Theta Pi

Zeta Sigma
- Primary cause of decease: Weak organization/World War II
- Founded 5/10/35 at Fairmont State College.
- Had 14 chapters.
- Disbanded after WWII and reverted the chapters back to local orgs, which subsequently joined such orgs as Tau Kappa Epsilon and Sigma Phi Epsilon

OK, that's it for the fraternities. Next time it will be the sororities, which will be MUCH shorter (only 18 orgs)

[Tom Earp]

Originally posted by Ch2tf
Sorry it took me so long to reply, I was on vacation but...

Your point is understood (somewhat). But I urge you to do a little bit more research about the founding of multicultural orgs because many have NOT in fact sprung up because of a lack of the desire to expand by previous existing groups. As well as other orgs, i.e. Latino & Asian orgs. While people may find comfort in what you term as their "own" they were also addressing the needs of a community who's needs and presence were at the time of founding, under-represented.

I always find anything of Historical Facts about Greeks very interesting.

There is always a Reason that GLOs had a reason to start and expand and grow.

RainMan is doing a tremendouse job whith His Posts and I hope a lot of GCers will read and Learn!

As some may know, I to started a Local and Affiliated with LXA. But, it was many years later that I found out many things about LXA and its History.

I am still trying to dig into it today along with other Brothers of LXA.

It is funny how some of the early Years were changed because of certain things in Eachs History!

It really isnt cut and dried!

[starang21]

i think rainman should get poster of the year for taking time out of work, family, and life to go through the painstaking process of finding ALL of the fraternities and sororities that don't exist anymore.

kudos.

[Finer Woman10-A-91]

And I have NO idea how I became the author. This is not my style...not even 5 years ago when the thread apparently was started. Somebody has some explaining to do!

[CrimsonTide4]

Originally posted by Finer Woman10-A-91
And I have NO idea how I became the author. This is not my style...not even 5 years ago when the thread apparently was started. Somebody has some explaining to do!

When the server was updated, many threads and posts got out of wack so some posts are out of order, like this thread.

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally posted by starang21
i think rainman should get poster of the year for taking time out of work, family, and life to go through the painstaking process of finding ALL of the fraternities and sororities that don't exist anymore.

kudos.

You're so generous.

[Rain Man]

Originally posted by mccoyred
Thanks, Rainman. You have posted a lot of good information.

You have demonstrated that the overwhelming majority of now defunct NIC/IFC fraternities (please correct me on the conference if I am incorrect) either merged or dissolved due to weak organization or specifically an external event (like War) which IMHO demonstrates a weak organization. I don't know whether the information on the sororities will demonstrate a similar pattern or not.

Well, I am in the process of summarizing the info for the fraternities. However, there are some factors I am taking into consideration before I consider them a "weak organization"

- Length of time in existence before merging/dissolution
- Number of chapters acquired
- Length of time in existence before a major event (wars, Great Depression, etc.)
- For orgs that died out due to Civil War, where the majority of chapters were located along with length of time in existence prior to the Civil War (It would've been highly unlikely that a young org in the South founded shortly before the Civil War to survive past the Reconstruction era). That doesn't necessarily indicate a weak org so much as it indicates a "sign 'o the times" *cue Prince song* The same can apply for orgs that were founded shortly before The Great Depression.
- Keep in mind also that a lot of these mergers weren't with NIC orgs per se, so much as they merged with orgs which later joined NIC. The NIC didn't begin as a national "council" until about 1909, was known as the IFC c. 1921, and formally became the NIC in 1931, so the fact that they merged with NIC orgs were merely happenstance after the fact. Think of it as another org merging with an NPHC org prior to 1930, so to speak.

As for fledgling or now defunct HBGLOs, there are many smaller non-NPHCs now and in the past. I think the original topic was specifically asking whether there are orgs out there who can meet the stringent organizational criteria for joining the NPHC. Pulling out information on orgs who could never meet this criteria further demonstrates WHY this policy has been put in place.

Which is why the research is so important. Keep in mind also the historical climate surrounding NPHC orgs is much different from that of NIC/NPC orgs. Thus, the historical climate that could adversely affect NIC/NPC orgs may have little, if any effect on NPHC orgs, and vice versa. Does that make the respective orgs weak? Not necessarily, and that is what I am alluding to.

I have Black Greek 101 at home; the last time I read it, I do recall several pages, I think a whole chapter, about other HBGLOs past and present.

I now have the book on order at Borders (or is it B&N?)

[Rain Man]

Originally posted by Tom Earp
I always find anything of Historical Facts about Greeks very interesting.

There is always a Reason that GLOs had a reason to start and expand and grow.

RainMan is doing a tremendouse job whith His Posts and I hope a lot of GCers will read and Learn!

As some may know, I to started a Local and Affiliated with LXA. But, it was many years later that I found out many things about LXA and its History.

I am still trying to dig into it today along with other Brothers of LXA.

It is funny how some of the early Years were changed because of certain things in Eachs History!

It really isnt cut and dried!

Thanks a lot, Tom for your support!

You are correct, it really isn't cut and dried.

And believe it or not, I think a lot of GCers are reading and learning from this thread. We tend to oversimplify the history of any GLO without taking into consideration there are a lot of factors, external and internal that play into the direction the org goes in their future years.

This is a great thread and I'm glad I started it (oops, I mean FinerWoman10A91)