Catholic Founded/Based Colleges and Universities

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally posted by sueali
By bringing up BYU i was just trying to make the point that it's not jsut a catholic issue, others brought up methodist schools and episcopalian. What is your problem?

I didn't just mean you. Catholic schools are a lot different than a Methodist school, or BYU, or Wheaton, or Bob Jones.

Also, Sensuret, Detroit-Mercy and John Carroll both have "traditional" Greek systems, there are currently active Gamma Phi chapters at both of them.

[Senusret I]

Thanks! I changed it.

[sueali]

I'm not trying to start trouble, but can you explain the difference? We don't have a catholic university in my area.

Catholic schools are a lot different than a Methodist school, or BYU, or Wheaton, or Bob Jones.

[aurora_borealis]

Senusret, I believe there are people from Santa Clara here on GC. I am about to head off to work so I can't search now. If you don't find it I will do a quick look when I get home.

The University has SAE, Sigma CHi, Pika, and Sigma Pi mentioned, I am sure there are more.

I want to say Theta is putting a colony in there, but I could be wrong. One of my sisters went to University of San Francisco, but if there was greek life she never mentioned it.

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally posted by sueali
I'm not trying to start trouble, but can you explain the difference? We don't have a catholic university in my area.

The majority of Jesuit universities are nowhere near as strict with their students as something like BYU or Wheaton. For example, if I wanted to go dancing, it wouldn't violate the school's honor code. We do have an honor code but it's nothing extreme like theirs. I basically go to the equivalent of a non-religious private school, but I'm required to take some theology and philosophy in addition to my regular coursework, and one of our "dorms" is for priests. I like my Jesuit university 10000x more than I liked my UW school, and I wouldn't trade it for anything other than a better Jesuit university. There are a lot of great websites out there explaining the principles of a Jesuit education.

[PhiPsiRuss]

Originally posted by LadyBug103
I live in the Northeast PA area, and attend Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, which is adament about not supporting greek life because of the reason that I have stated. The institutions surrounding me don't support greek orgs. , such as Kings College, College Miseracordia, The University of Scranton (which is a Jesuit University), Johnson College, Bible Baptist College, Penn State Branch Campuses (which is a state university obviously, but don't have greek systems because only the main campus does), Marywood University, Lackawanna County Community College. Not ALL of these are Catholic based but the majority are, and it seems as though its consistent that they don't support greek orgs. due to many reasons, which I dont agree with.
Thank you for all of your messages, I wasn't sure if it was a universal thing!! I'm glad that its not!! Now all I have to do is TRANSFER

OK, now you'll get some real answers. There are 171 Catholic colleges and universities in the U.S. Of these, there are 28 Jesuit institutions of higher learning. About half of the Jesuit universities do not have Greek systems, and most of these simply prohibit fraternal organizations. Most of the Jesuit colleges and universities that prohibit Greeks are either in the Northeast, or the West Coast. Some of these institutions have policies that state that fraternal organizations are inconsistent with Catholic teachings. Some do not. Fraternal organizations are not deemed inconsistent with Catholicism, or there would be no Catholic colleges and universities with Greek systems. In addition to many Jesuit institutions prohibiting Greeks, the University of Notre Dame also prohibits Greeks.

If we want to broaden this thread to Catholicism, I can get one of my brothers, who is a Priest, to join in the discussion. I'm Jewish, so I'm not exactly an authority on this.

With regard to the schools in your area:

King's College had a chapter of Pi Lambda Phi from 1984 until 1988, according to Baird's. I don't know if this chapter existed [i/sub rosa[/i]. You would have to contact the administration to find out their policy.

The College Misericordia is not listed Baird's, so you would have to contact them regarding their policies.

University of Scranton is Jesuit and, according to Baird's, has never had recognized social fraternal organizations.

Johnson Technical Institute is not listed in any of my sources. Is it a an accredited 4 year school? If not, then of course there are no Greeks.

The Baptist Bible College is not Catholic, and not listed in any of my sources. Is it a 4 year school, and if so, how many full time undergraduate students are there?

Your Penn State branch may not have a Greek system, but several do.

Marywood University, according to Baird's, has no Greek system. You would have to contact that school to find out their policies.

Lackawanna County Community College does not have a Greek system because it is a community college.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

[Rudey]

We always heard really good things about the Georgetown chapter and when I met a couple of the brothers from there, I was impressed.

-Rudey
--Funny that at a prestigious Jesuit university it's the Jewish house to be the first "general" fraternity.

Originally posted by Senusret I
I decided that I would make a listing of Jesuit Colleges and Universities to see which ones have a traditional greek system or not. Since most BGLOs and LGLOs can function through metropolitan chapters, I won't note them. If there is an "unrecognized" chapter of a national GLO on a campus that does NOT have a recognized system, I will note it.


Boston College
Canisius College, YES
College of the Holy Cross
Creighton University, YES
Fairfield University
Fordham University
Georgetown University, NO but has a chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi
Gonzaga University
John Carroll University, YES
Le Moyne College
Loyola College in Maryland
Loyola Marymount University
Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University New Orleans, YES
Marquette University, YES
Regis University, NO
Rockhurst University
Saint Joseph's University
Saint Louis University, YES
Saint Peter's College
Santa Clara University
Seattle University
Spring Hill College
University of Detroit Mercy, YES
University of San Francisco
University of Scranton, NO
Wheeling Jesuit University
Xavier University

Of course this is incomplete, I will edit the post as we get more info. And FYI, I only included Jesuit Universities because 1) the ones that ban them seem to say that frats/sorors are against the Jesuit mission, and 2) because I went to one and worked for one!

[33girl]

Senusret I,
Rockhurst and Loyola-Chicago are yeses. We have chapters at both of them.

russellwarshay,
The only Penn State branches I know of that have Greek systems with national groups are Behrend (which really isn't a branch, but a college) and Altoona - what other ones do?

[PhiPsiRuss]

Originally posted by sueali
By bringing up BYU i was just trying to make the point that it's not jsut a catholic issue, others brought up methodist schools and episcopalian. What is your problem?

Wrong thread. Read its title.

[PhiPsiRuss]

Originally posted by 33girl
Senusret I,
Rockhurst and Loyola-Chicago are yeses. We have chapters at both of them.

russellwarshay,
The only Penn State branches I know of that have Greek systems with national groups are Behrend (which really isn't a branch, but a college) and Altoona - what other ones do?

I don't remember, but we had this discussion at a Phi Kappa Psi Executive Council meeting a few years ago. The current edition of Baird's is too out of date to address the current state of the Penn State system. My point was that the number is greater than zero.

[Senusret I]

Originally posted by Rudey
--Funny that at a prestigious Jesuit university it's the Jewish house to be the first "general" fraternity.

Funny, but not so surprising to me. Those guys definitely saw a need for Jewish men to unite under those circumstances. Sometimes Georgetown can be VERY Catholic.

(Much like seven men I know who started something different at Cornell in 1906 )

[PhiPsiRuss]

Originally posted by Rudey
We always heard really good things about the Georgetown chapter and when I met a couple of the brothers from there, I was impressed.

-Rudey
--Funny that at a prestigious Jesuit university it's the Jewish house to be the first "general" fraternity.

Hey Rudey, you're wrong. Very wrong. Delta Chi had a chapter at Georgetown from 1903 until 1943. AEP is the only fraternity that is currently active at Georgetown.

[Senusret I]

Let's just call it the first since the ban, okay?

[AOIIBrandi]

I just want to set the record straight when I responded re: The University of the South it was in response to the original poster mentioning that the only other denomination that they could think of that is ok with greek life is Methodist (see quote below). I'm sorry if it took the thread off topic.

Originally posted by LadyBug103
I know that other denominational based universities support GLO's such as Methodist (That's the only one that I know of actually). Does anyone have any insight into this topic?

[Rudey]

Originally posted by Senusret I
Funny, but not so surprising to me. Those guys definitely saw a need for Jewish men to unite under those circumstances. Sometimes Georgetown can be VERY Catholic.

(Much like seven men I know who started something different at Cornell in 1906 )

Really? I see what you mean but I'd heard Georgetown wasn't too religious because of the fact that it was a top tier school. You'd be surprised but a few christian schools have contacted our national office to set up chapters there in the hopes that they'll attract Jewish students.

-Rudey
--I just find it funny.