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Fraternities in general have always had popularity on college campuses ever since they were formed. In the middle 1800s, there was a push to abolish them due to their secrecy by many faculties at some schools, and again in the 1900s there was again a push to diminish the effect they had on the students as well.
The fact that many societies have existed for over 100 yrs proves that they never really lost popularity among college students, even if "adults" on the outside didnt understand them.
My thoughts about why Erskine Literary Societies would want to mimic general social fraternities is just that...they wanted to be more social in nature to be able to draw in more members. Also, not knowing the history at Erskine, were social fraternities ever allowed on campus? You'd have to check faculty minutes but maybe in the 1970s there was hope that National Social Greek Letter Societies might be allowed to charter at the school, so the existing societies tried to become "locals" to which Nationals would be drawn to.
Many National (or International if you want to be specific) groups would look at campuses where they could expand their organizations and look at groups that existed on campuses with long histories, that would bolster a good alumni base to which chapter really depend on for support.
Also, depending on the proximity to other schools there may have been influence from nearby schools for these societies to become more "greek" in nature.
Without an accurate picture of the history of the college and its take on social groups, this may all be just a guess.
There are many articles and books written about this subject if you dig a little. The NIC HQ in Indianapolis has such material on fraternities and sororities and their influence on society.
Hope this helps also.
BadgeGuy
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