Hi SarahMac!
I believe I can offer useful advice to you.
I attended the University of Bristol for my postgrad. I once had corresponded with a girl from Cardiff who wanted to start a sorority at the uni there....but I think she ended up transferring to an American uni anyway. I also knew a young man who attempted to start a law fraternity at Nottingham Trent.
In my experience, the students' union may be wary of approving the start of a sorority for two reasons:
1) They may think of all of the crazy American movies depicting fraternities and sororities as organizations which party hard and haze members. Of course, the athletes' union at Bristol did some ridiculously awful things to the athletes and then published all of the photos in the paper so that can't be a real argument...
2) From what I understand, the UK has some anti-discrimination laws which prevent a single gender student organization from forming. At least, Bristol Uni did. You may have to form a "Co-ed" group with the blokes being in the "fraternity half" of the soc and the girls being in the "sorority half". Or, you could form the sorority off-campus as a community organization and then the uni couldn't say anything. Though, you may have a hard time booking rooms and such in the union.
You may have to explain it to the students union as a women's social and philanthropic club. I noticed that some Brits tended to understand a little better when I said that it was a little bit like the Masons...though, they aren't exactly the same thing.
I've got a good amount of info for you; send me a private message and maybe I can explain more.
.....Kelly
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